A Passion for Politics: The Life of Mulford Winsor

A PASSION FOR POLITICS: THE LIFE OF MULFORD WINSOR
By
Margaret F. Maxwell
School of Library Science
University of Arizona
Tucson
1995
CONTENTS
Introduction
I. From Kansas to Arizona
II.Tucson, Arizona, 1899-1903
III. Newspaper Days: Phoenix to Yuma and_Back, 1904-08
IV. Mulford Winsor, Territorial Historian
V. The Making of Arizona's Constitution
VI. The Road to Statehood
VII. Mulford Winsor, State Land Commissioner
VIII. Rancher and Senator, 1915-1917
IX. Water, Politics, and Pestilence, 1917-1918
X. The Yuma Mesa Auxiliary Project and a Run for Governor
XI.The Collapse of Arizona's Cotton Industry; First Regional
iii
1
6
13
17
23
28
34
45
52
61
Planning for Colorado River Control 70
XII. Muddying the waters: Arizona and the Colorado River 76
XIII. Hunt vs Winsor: The River and the Code Commissioner 84
XIV. Damming the Colorado: Winsor and the Swing-Johnson
Bill
XV. The Arizona Colorado River Commission
XVI. Political Interregnum: Winsor becomes State
Librarian, 1932
XVII. The State Library: Depression Years, 1932-36
XVIII. A New State Library Building and the WPA Statewide
Library Project: First Efforts Toward Library
Extension J
XIX. A Nation at War: Arizona's Libraries, 1941-44
XX. State Aid for Arizona's Libraries? 1945-1949
XXI. ASLA vs Winsor: Stalemate 1950-1951
XXII. The Extension Agency: A Double Cross and a Failure
91
96
109
112
121
140
158
1951-54 174
XXIII. The Death of Mulford Winsor and the Activation of
Library Extension, 1956-1957 186
iii
I NTF.:ODUCT I ON
When Mulford Winsor died following a stroke at the age of
eighty two in Phoenix on November 5, 1956, ·he ended more than a
half century of service to the territoiial and state government
of Arizona. Born in Kansas May 31, 1874, he came with his
family at . the age of eighteen to Arizona where he became a
newspaper printer, editor and publisher. In "1901, 1905, and
1909, he was named Assistant Chief Clerk in the Territorial
Legislature. In March 1909 he was called to be Arizona's first
Territorial Historian. In 1910 he was elected a delegate from
Yuma County to the Arizona Constitutional Convention. When
George W. P. Hunt became the first governor of Arizona in 1912,
he asked Winsor to be his private secretary. Later that year, he
was named the first chairman of the State Land Commission, a
position he held until 1915. He was elected Senator from Yuma
County beginning with the third State Legislature meeting
in January 1917, serving as President of the Senate from 1923 to
1928. During the last two years of his Senatorial tenure, he was
a member of the Ari~ona Colorado River Commission, making several
trips to Washington to testify on behalf of Arizona's interests
in the Colorado River controversy. On the death of.Arizona's
first State Li br ar ian, Con P. Crc•ni n, in 1932, Wi nsc•r was named
by the State Legislature as Arizona's second State Librarian, a
position he held until his death twenty-four years later.
Like his predecessor, Mulford Winsor had no background or
training in library work, and, frc•m all indications, no
particular interest in Arizona's libraries aside from the State
Library, which he viewed as an agency whose primary
responsibility lay with service to the State Legislators. As a
long time member of the Arizona State Senate, Winsor was an
expert in bill drafting, a skill which he made available freely
to legislators who wished help in presenting their measures
before the legislature. This, together with the provision of
legislative reference, he regarded as the most important part of
his work as State Librarian. In addition, Winsor's first
important political appointment, that of Territorial Historian of
Arizona, was indicative of his life-long passion for the
collection and preservation of historical and archival material
about Arizona. In 1937, he succeeded in amalgamating the State
Historian's office with that of the State Library, thus
officially adding research in Arizona history to his duties.
Thus, when Winsor was approached by members of the Arizona
State Library Association beginning early in the 1940s with
reiterated requests for State Library support for stronger
libraries in Arizona, his reaction was lukewarm at best. ASLA
efforts to work through the State Library for the establishment
of an extension agency to further the cause of Arizona libraries,
lacking the enthusiastic support of the State Librarian, were
rebuffed year after year by the State Legislature. Finally, in
1948, the rumored possibility of Federal asistance for libraries,
available only to states having an extension agency, breathed new
iv
life into ASLA's cause. On March 17, 1949, the 19th Arizona
State Legislature passed a bill establishing an extension agency
as part of the State Library, this agency to become operative
only if the Public Library Service Demonstration Bill passed
Congress. Since the Congressional Bill f~iled, the Arizona State
Extension Agency remained dormant.
In th~ end, the breakthrough came with Congressional
passage of the Federal Library Services Act durin~ the summer of
1956. Mulford Winsor's death on November 5 that same year led
to a change in the administration of the State Library and the
beginning of a new era of library service in Arizona.
I am appreciative to a number of institutions and
individuals for supporting my study of the life of Mulford
Winsor. My research on Winsor's life and times was supported
by a sabbatical leave granted by the University of Arizona for
the fall semester 1987. In addition, I was named the 1988
recipient of the Bert Fireman Award by the Arizona Historical
Foundation. Members of the Reference Staff at the Arizona
Historical Societies of Tucson and Yuma were generous with
informatic•n, as ·was the ever helpful staff ·at Special
Collections, University of Arizona Library, Tucson.
I owe a special debt of gratitude to Sharon Womack
(1940-1993), then Directc•r of the Arizc•na Department •:Of Library,
Archives & Public Records, who not only was unfailingly
interested in my efforts to learn more about her predecessor in
office, but who supported my research by giving me free access to
the voluminous records of the State Library and of the Arizona
State Library Association, stored at the DLAPR Archives building.
I regret that her untimely death prevented my sharing my
completed history with her.
Finally, my greatest appreciation goes to my good friend,
Mulford Winsor's daughter, Eleanor Winsor Davis (1904-1995), ~ho
loaned me her father's pers•:•nal papers and wh•:o was my initial
inspiration for undertaking the life of Mulford Winsor. It is to
Eleanor, in love and friendship, that I dedicate this volume.
Margaret F. Ma~;well ·
I
I. FROM KANSAS TO ARIZONA
Mulford Winsor was born on May 31, 1874, in Jewell City,
Kansas, the third child and second son of Caroline Kelly and
Mulford Winsor, Sr. A country newspaper editor, his father
managed newspapers in Jewell County until the family moved to
Leavenworth in 1884. Here, according to· his own recollection, the
ten year old boy learned to set type on the b~~Y§Q~Q~ib_gY§QiD9
§!~Q~~~~' standing beside his father. Of this experience he
sc:d.d, "I remember- that the hand-·wyitten copy was veyy pool'",
particularly the unedited but meagey tele£_~raph. "1
Two years lateY, when the family moved to FoYt Smith,
Arkansas, twelve year old Mulford seems to have continued his
work as a compositor; he woY"ked with his fathey on the [Q~i
§m!tb-~!§Y~tQ~ Ca weeklyl, the [Q~t __ §m!ib _ !!m§§ C~orning) and
the ~Y~Q!Qg __ ~~l!· The precocious teenageY gained a reputation
al 1 oveY the state of Ar kan~;as as a "swift," an e~,;tyemel y fast
and accurate compositoY", during the seven years that the Winsors
remained in the area. Here Mulford completed grade school and
high school, the extent of his formal education.
Things seemed to be going well foy the Winsors, except for
the fact that Fort Smith, situated as it was near mosquito
infested marshes 6n the banks of the AYkansas River, was not a
healthy place to live. Malaria struck the family. The oldest
son, Walter, had moved to Arizona in 1890. He wrot' glowing
·reports c•f a land "whE~re th<e air is pu·re and malaY"ia unknown. "2
In January 1892, the Winsor family sold their home, packed their
belongings, and took the Santa Fe Railroad for Seligman, Arizona,
where they caught the Prescott and Arizona Central Railroad to
their destination, the little town of Prescott, Arizona. ·Here
Mulford Winsor, Sr., turned his hand to contracting and building
houses while the young Mulfoyd worked as a compositor both for
the JQY~D~!=~iD§L and the ~QY~i§~·
PYescott in 1895, judging by contemporary photographs and
wyitten accounts, must have been a pleasant place foy solid,
conservative, God fearing folk such as Mulford and CaYolyn
Winsor. A panoramic lithograph created by Jules Baumann, Prescott
photogYapheY and artist, in 1891 shows a town of some pretensions
built up around a dignified Victorian style court house of three
s:;tories on the town square. According to Baumann, "Prescott
enjoys a most perfect climate; cyclones, fog, extreme heat or
cold aYe unknown here. The air is light, dyy and puYe, full of
fragrance from the lofty pines which cover the surro~nding
hills. One finds here excellent public schools, churches of 5
different denominations, flourishing fraternal societies, a well
organized and effective fire department, militia company, Grand
Army post, etc., etc., also 2 daily papers and in fact most
everything that gc•es to make up a modern, American town." Even
making allowances for civic boosterism, Prescott, Territorial
Capital of AYizona until 1889, had an atmosphere of culture and
stability that was all too often lacking in some of the less
settled areas of the Territoyy.
But though hard times may have come later to Arizona than
they did to the more settled EasteYn areas of the United Stat~s,
by the end of the year 1895, locally depressed economic
conditions forced Prescott businesses to cut back. Mulford found
himself only occasionally needed by Prescott's two newspaper
editors. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that yhen Mulford's
brother Walter, who had previously moved to the town of Yuma in
the southwest corner of the Territory, told him of an opening at
the YYffi@ __ !iffi§§, that he decided to leave Prescott. By May 25,
1895, he was serving as the foreman of the Iimg§, with his
brother as his assistant. And so, with the hot summer drawing on,
Mulford found himself in a town with such .a reputation for
searing temperatures that it seems to have been the original for
the old joke about the prospector who having died and gohe to
Hell, sent back upstairs for his blankets.
However, there seems to have been more to Yuma than heat. As
a contempo·r-ary account put it, "Yuma was an 'adobe' town,
as all Arizona towns have been, but it is rapidly losing that
characteristic with the building of modern wocid and brick
structures. The county court house and jail are relics of old
adobe decency, but the church and school buildings are
first-class structures, which condition argues well for Yuma's
morals and intelligence ... The leading merchants occupy good
buildings. The last public building erected is the Gandolfo
hotel, a brick strGcture two stories in height, having a frontage
on Main street of 195 feet. The upper floor contains thirty guest
f" C•(:tinS ... a
"The town has all the moder·n equipment of sewerage,
waterworks, electric light and telephone ••. Water is supplied
thE~ town by pump·::; and a reservcdr on the hill. The ease with
which the desert may be made to blossom like the rose is shown
by an orange grove on the hill, near the reservoir, from which
the ground is watered ..• In the Colorado bottom lands, below the
town, irrigation is effected by means of pumps, supplying two
canals, and a comparatively small area of land is under
cultivation. The chief prc•ducts of this land are alfalfa,
grapes, and peaches.
"This 'gate city' of the Territory has a great futur-e in
store fo·r- it, unless all indications are at fault." 3
No wonder that the young Mulford Winsor decided to forsake
the pines of Prescott and to throw his lot in with the fortunes
of the fledgling YYm~_!iffi§§. But scarcely had the Iiffi§§:§ rival,
the weekly aLi~QD~ §guiiug!, announced, albeit grudgingly, that
the Iiill§f~' editor thoL.q;:~ht hi~:; ne•.-.1 for·eman "a No. l man, "4 thc.m it
cheerfully announced its obituary. Alas to read, first on July
13, that "ThE~ St1t'?~-i f"f took po!:;ses!s:ion of the Iiffi§§ office last
Sunday afternoon and moved the material to the court house where
it still remains. Two judgements have been r-endered against it
and an appeal to the District Court taken. This ties the Times
up for the present and it is probable that ~orne little time will
intervene before its readers will have the pleasure of perusing
its columns again." On August 3 1 §gu!.ing! _ readers learned
that ''The Yuma Times plant was sold yesterdax morning at 10
o'clock to satisfy the judgement of Samuel Purdy <Yuma County
Attorney) against the Yuma Printing and Publishing Company. It
was bought by Mr. Purdy for $200 over a chattel mortgage held by
J. w. Dor--r·ington for $500."
At this point~ Mulford and his brother Walter, casting abo~t
for new possibilities to earn a living, took up 160 acres of fine'
river bottom land five miles south of Yuma. Joined by their
parents, they decided to try their hands at farming. Mulford
Winsor, Sr., built a modest four room frame dwelling on the
property and they planted the acreage to alfalfa.
Though his father seemed happy~ working on the construction
of a new home for his family on the fertile tract of land in the
Yuma Valley and plunging himself into the detailed study of
everything that had been written about the possibility of
irrigating the desert lands on which he now found himself,
Mulford soon found himself looking around for more challenging
employment. He probably met Dick Laney, an official of the F.~ L.
Ewing Lumber Company on Third Street in Yuma in th~ course of
arranging for the lumber to build their house on the bottom
lands. As Mulfor-d recalled thE~ ~story some years later, "Laney
and his wife, a highly capable lady, ••• conceived the idea
that there was an urgent opening in the journalistic field. They
visited the author of this story at his ranch in Yuma Valley •••
and persuaded him to take charge of the managerial and mechanical
phases of the Laney newspaper project. He did so for pure love of
the labors of ~ newspaper office, 'whether mechanical or
jour-nalistic. 11 5
Late in March, Mulford left Walter with his parents to
continue cultivating th<~i-r· river bottom Yanch wPfile he tc•ok th£~
dirt road noYth to Yuma. Here he established himself and his new
weekly newspaper in an old adobe building which stood on Madison
Avenue two doors south of the old Sanguinetti home (now the
headquay-teys of the Yuma Historical Society). As he y-emembered
it, "the adobe was old and cy-ude, bLtt it answered the
requiYements of the none too particular manager of the
6~Y§Lii§§L· It contained rooms for a business office, a
composing room and a pressYoom, in which latteY compartment stood
a Washington hand py-ess, one of the last of its type. A small
r·f~)Ct:!pt<::\Cl£:! adjoinin~;1 the busin£;)S~s offiCE) seyved as ·a bedroom for
the man of all work--namely the writer-- except in the summer
months, when he spent the hours of delightful nocturnal repose on
a cot perched on the yoof, which was reached by way of a
1 adder. "6
Here, happily basking in the last of Yuma's mild spYing
days, Mulford set in type and issued the YYlli§_6~Y§Lii§§L's first
numl:n·?·r, datte?d Apr-il '3, 18'36. .O.s an item of lor:.al intey-est, he
stated ''Tomorrow April lOth the Yuma Sun will appear above the
editoYial hoy-izon. The bright young attorneys, Brown and Huson
will wield the pen and shears and we venture to assert will
c:.ius!~ the ~sun to shine. 11
Sadly enough, Winsor's fledgling newspaper survived less
than two months. But coincidentally, at about the same moment
that Winsor's 6~Y§Lii§§L ceased publication, C. L. Brown,
coeditor of the equally new YYlli§_§yn, asked Winsor if he would be
interested in joining forces with him, as his partner had decided
to bow out of the business. Winsor was delighted; he turned over
the idle B~Y§Lii§§L equipment, including the quarters it h~d
occupied on Madison Avenue. The YYm~ __ §yo announced that it was
now published by Charles L. Brown and Mulford Winsor. The
Brown-Winsor partnership lasted only three months. In mid August
1896 Brown sold his interest in the newspaper to Winsor~ who
carried it forward alone for the next three years.
Winsor had first shown an interest in Democratic politics in
1896, when he served as secretary for thQ Yuma county Demotratic
convention. Having dabbled tentatively at the edge of the water
in 1896, by the time of the October 1898 county Democ~atic
c onVE'nt :i. on L..Ji nsor· decided to get hi·:; feet wet. .His own .Yb!!!lE_§yo
for October 7, 1898, listed the complete slate of Democratic
candidates for the twentieth Territorial Legislature ~long with
other biennial elective county positions. As he noted, "most
of the gentlemen selected by the Democratic Convention to
represent that party in the fall campaign are well kno~n citizens
of Yuma County, and their interests in the community as well as
their ability to variousiy perform the duties of the respective
offices to which they aspire are matters of history ••• As
candidate for Assemblyman, the Democratic party chose Mulford
Winsor, proprietor and editor of this paper. Of his claims and
qualifications we can have but little to say in these columns,
fu·r-ther than to tf.:-!ll in brief pl~ manner of the years he has
spent in preparation for public life in whatever direction his
services might be demanded .••
"t~lr. Win~;cqd~; sentiments should by this time,be well known,
as he has had the editorial management of the §yo, which reads
in every camp and by nearly every voter in Yuma County, for ~ver
two years. If he be chosen to represent Yuma County ~n the
lower house of Arizona's Legislature, his every effort will be
put forth in aidinq to secure the reforms so strenuously
demanded, notably the abolishment of the territorial Boards of
C::ont y· ol , Equ.::\1 i ~~at ion, I mmi £F. at ion, and Education, which is
incorporated in the Territorial Democratic platform and is
receivin£.~ the E·?rH:Iorsr~ment of thE' voters •::•f all parties." 7 '·',
But alas for Mulford's new found political aspirations.
Despite the possibly less prejudiced opinion of the editor of
th~2 ~t:.i.f.QQ~ __ §Yll~ii.!l the following W(:?ek that "l'"lt-. Wi nsoY"· -i"s a
man of intelligence and would reflect cyedit on his county if
elected to the legislature,B Republican candidate John Doan won
the E~l ect ion. ':3
What Winsor might have done, had he won election to the
twentieth Arizona Territorial Legislative Assembly, is of course
speculative. But Winsor seems to have determined to leave Yuma.
Six months later, on Friday~ March 10, 1899~ the §YQ:§ editorial
column carried the announcement of the sale of the newspaper to
J. E. Devine? a Phoenix newspaperman. Giving himself enough time
to wind up his affairs in Yumay on April 17, 1899, Mulford Winsor
took the Southern Pacific railroad train for the biggest ~ity in
the Territory of Arizona, Tucson, where that same day he began
his new position as news editor of the 8r.i.;_f!QE_ld_gilY_k:iii;_§n.10
1. Winsor·,
typescript,
Mul fo·r·d. "1'"1ul ford Winsor's
E. W. Davis Collection.
Story Himself,"
2. Mulford Winsor, Sr., to Washincton Winsor,
typescript, E.W. Davis collection.
July 27, 1'302,
5. r1ulfoy·c:J Wins::.or, "First Daily Publisher gives Story of
Begin n i n g, " Lk\illfLl"22il:x:_§h\!l 1 Sept • 25, 1'353.
6. Ibid.
7. XYm~_§yn, Oct. 7, 1898.
9.6ri~Q!l§_§yo, Nov. 11, 1898.
II. TUCSON, ARIZONA, 1899-1903
After Mulford Winsor's years in Yuma, Tucson, largest city
in the Territor·y of Arizona, must have bee•n -an imposing sight.
The business district, some three quarters of a mile from the
Southern Pacific station, was impressive, with its unpaved
streets fronted with brick buildings ~nd tall poles strung With
electric wires for lighting marching along the edge -of the
side• ... alk .. ·Stately Victorian homE~s illuminated •..Jith the new
electric power or the older, more reliable gas ·lighting bordered
Main Street to the north of the business district and in the
Armory P~rk neighborhood to the south. And not only were most of
the businesses and many of the homes electrified; a munitipal
water system had furnished Tucsonans with safe, drinkable water
for more than a decade, freely available at thirty-five hydrants
located throughout the city. The finer homes of Tucson had water
piped indoors; a few of them even boasted indoor bath facilities.
In addition, many of those members of Tucson's aristocracy·
who had abandoned the ubiquitous "little house" in the far
cotner of the back yard were subscribers to Tucson's local
telephone exchange. What a contrast this must have seemed to
the little Colorado F.:iv£~r village of Yuma.. ,
Tucson had spread out in all directions from its earlier
center around Stone, Pennington, Congress, and Main Streets, so
much so that a yeai earlier, in 1898, a streetcar powered by two
mules traversed rails laid out to the east from the Southern
Pacific depot past the buildings of the Indian School to the
growing University still isolated on its forty acres three miles
from Tucson in the desert. A second mule car line ran south to
Carillo's Gardens, a pleasant, tree shaded amusement park
located a few blocks southwest of the business district on the
banks of the Santa Cruz River.
If all this was not enough to prove that Tucson was a
thoroughly modern city, the first automobile in the Territory, a
Locomobile steamer, owned by Dr. H. W. Fenner, Game to Tucson
that same year.1 And in contrast to Yuma, which seemed just
barely able to support two rival weekly newspaper~, two daily
papers, the morning 6ci~QQ~-Q~ilL __ §t3L and the evening IY£§QQ
~iti~§Q had coexisted for a number of years, though not, of
course, without rivalry. It was to work as news editor on the
~iti~§Q that Mulford Winsor had come to Tucson on Monday, April
17, 18'3'J.
The Republican oriented IY£§QQ _ Qiii~gn, edited for many
years by Herbert Brown, had recently acquired a new manager and
editor, George H. Smalley, who for several years previously had
edited the Phoenix gygning __ ~§L~l~· In a series of
autobiographical reminiscences written a half century later,
Smalley remembered his first sight of his new newspaper plant.
The financially shaky ~iii~§D ''was housed in a long adobe
building at the corner of Congress and Main. During the heat of
a summer day the tin roof of the building sent blistering heat.
into the n£0Wspape·r office. In the pr•:u:ess of printing a paper., .
the wax rollers would start to melt, and the press had to be
stopped. I had a box made to contain two rollers which was
7
packed with ice, and when the ink dragged on the forms, I had two
other rollers in the 1cebox which were substituted for the two
melting r·oller·s. In that 1n1ay \.Je printed the editions."2
An experienced newspaperman straight from an Arizona
village where summer temperatures topped anything Tucson could
possibly muster probably looked like an ideal assistant to the
hard working Qiti~§Q __ editor. And indeed Mulford Winso0 and
George Smalley seem to have worked well together, remaining
friends ~or many years after their brief association on Ib§
Qiti~§Q. But Mulford did not remain long at thii time in Tucson.
Just after the first of the year, the Tucson ~iii~§Q announced
that "Mulford Wi n~sor, former editor of the Yuma Sun, has re•:ei ved
the appointment of County Assessor of Yuma County for the ensuing
year to succeed John 1'1. Sp€,:ese, whose term e);pired." 3
Mulford's enthusiastic pursuit of Yuma County's taxes must
have made him one of the best known albeit least popular citizens
of the county. If one is to believe the account in the ~iii~§D
for t1ay 14, 1'300, he "accomplishc-?d a distance c•f nearly 1000-
milE"i>S in seventeen days," mostly on hc•rseback, visiting evey-y
mining camp, farm and ranch in the county. Just how much revenue
1'1ulford collected, and how he established his assessment Cif value
of the various properties he inspected in Yum~ County is not
known. Probably it is ,just as well that after ·one term as tax
assessor, he did not attempt the unpopular task again.
Winsor's survey of Yuma county, which must have interested
him greatly, together with the preparation of required reports to
Governor N. 0. Murphy occupied him through the end of the fiscal
year. On August 24, 1900, a month later, he returned to the YYm~
§yQ, this time as business manager. 4 Without doubt, he
maintained his interest in Arizona politics and the bemoc~atic
party. Perhaps he witnessed the fractious Democ~ati~ con~~htion
held during the month of September in Phoenix. At any rate, at
the opening of the Twenty-first Territorial Legislature in the
new Capitol Building in Phoenix on January 21, 1901, Mulford
Winsor held the appointive post of assistant chief clerk of the
c:ouncil.5
This opportunity to witness as well as to record the day by
day transactions of the Legislature was an invalu~ble
apprenticeship for Winsor's later political career. Much of the
Legislature's time was taken up with revisions to the Arizona
Civil Code, a matter which was to be of much interest to Winsor
some years later. Members of the Legislature locked horns on
many issues with Governor Murphy, rejecting his plea for funding
for the construction of a new Territorial Prison to replace the
antiquated and inadequate fortress at Yuma. They seemed equally
unwilling to heed his request for funding for the construction of
storage reservoirs as an aid to irrigation. However,:they
adopted the saguara blossom as the official flower of Arizona,
and s£;:-lec:ted an official State Ode, "composed by -Mrs. Elise E.
r~verill, of Tempe, and Mrs. Frank Cox of Phc•eni~,;." Mc•reover,
they gave tax exemption foy- twelve years to beet sugar factories,
and p.:.issed a L-l',.. "makint,;.~ it unlawful for any persc•n to conduct a
game of c:hance on the streets of any unincorpoFated city... They
then turned their attention to appropriation bills. In addition
.;._
to the general appropriation bill allowing state expenditures of
$35,000, a number of special appropriation bills were passed,
including the gt71nelrou~. sum of $1000 "to defray the e~;pense •:•f the
Legislative committf.o>e on dedication of the capitol." All in all,
as future f~tate HistoYian Gf?Olrge Kt=lly commented, ·"This
LegislatuYe made moYe appropriations and passed more bills over
the Governor's veto than had ever been done by any former
:.e~.sic•r1. ••s
!...Jhatey·er their feelings toward Governor Murphy, the
good party, ·particulaYly when
account of Sl,OOO to do it. The
building on February 24, 1901,
The legislative chambeYs were
with shrubs and flowers. Governor
Street and President Eugene Ives
legislators knew how to throw
they were given an expense
dedication of the new ·capitol
must have been spectacular.
garlanded with pine and banked
Murphy, Chief Justice Webster
of the Council spoke. 1"1rs. Frank Cox of Phc•enix, fair composer
of the just adopted Arizona Ode, sang the ode to great applause.
In the evening, as one newspaper correspondent put it, the
capitol was "d.::Hnpened in the mo~.t appyoved style," with a punch
bowl in the Governor's office, another in the office of the
Secretary, a third in the Council Chamber and a fourth in the
A-::;sembly Hall. "I:f that will not lay f~::tr over t~1e1best cocktail
route ever travelr~d in the Southwe·:st I miss my guess," conclLtded
the correspondent, with considerable enthusiasm.?
We may assume that our hero took in the festivities, and
that he also survived them. The following month, the March 27,
1901 6~i~QQ§_§goiiO§! reported that ''Mulford Winsor, who has
been serving as Asst. Chief Clerk of the House in the late 21st
finished up his work and came home from Phoenix on Monday
mo·rning's train."
Winsor remained as business manager of the YYffi§_§yo until
May 17, 1901. On that date he severed his association with the
§yo, becoming co-owner and manager of the Southwest Printers
Supply of Los Angeles.B For the Yest of the year, he traveled
about the Territory selling type fonts and other printers'
supplies to Arizona newspapers.
In April 1901 the Tucson e~i~QQ~_[iti~gQ, for which Mulford
WinsoY had worked briefly in 1899, changed hands. HeYbert
Brown, propyietor of the Giii~§O and superintendent for several
years of the TeYritorial PYison at Yuma sold the paper to a
conglome·rat(:? known <:.<.s ''the Democratic syndicate.'' 1-'\ccoYding to
Don Schellie, the "syndicate" consisted of two wealthy Arizona
mining men, Charles M. Shannon and William C. Greene.9 As George
Smalley, editor under whose direction Mulford had worked earlier,
put it, GYeene had purchased the Giti~gQ in order to provide a
job for John H. Behan, a friend from his Tombstone days.10 Behan
was teamed with O'Brien MooYe, who had served ·as editor of
newspapers in Houston and St. Louis before coming to Arizona. The
"·:syndicat€=" sE;!ems only to have provided the cash foY the
newspaper operation, leaving management and editorial policy to
BE)i an and 11oor e.
Edit or 1"1oor £:1 •.Jas characterized by Smalley as "very
pugnacious and a vicious writer."11 That plus the fact that the
first issue of the ~iii~§Q__ announced to staunch Republican
Smalley'~:; di~::.may that since the F.:epublican party had become "a
servile servant of monopoly, ••• this newspaper will henceforth
resolutely c!d\/Cu:at£~ the principles of the Democratic party, "12
led Smalley to leave the paper.
The change in political affiliation, of course, would not
disturb Democrat Mulford Winsor. Evidently he felt he could get
along with the scrapping O'Brien Moore.· Behan's name disappeared
from the ~iii~§Q masthead on May 23, 1901, about the time that
the 8r:.i~QD._.6 __ !;;;;ii.i~§!J movE~d to 1 arger quarters C:\t the corner •:•f
South Stone Avenue and Broadway.13 On December 13, 1901, ihe
~ii.i~§!J announced: "Hc•n. Char-les M. Shannon and his as~;ociates,
who purchased The Citizen last spring for the sole purpose of
establishing a Democratic daily newspaper in Arizona, havin9 now
effected that purpose, have sold all their ~ights~ title and
interest in The Citizen Publishing Company to O'Brien Moore and
~'lul fc)rd !rJi ns.or·." From this date, the masthead read "0' Brien
Moo·r-,-;?, Editor. Mulford Winso~-, Mi:."Hiager." And on December 16,_
three days later, the name of the paper was changed from !b§
8r:.i~2D.~-~iii~§D. to Ibg_!Y£§QQ_~iii~§D.·
The opening of the year 1902 found Mulford at Work in
Tucson on the ~iii~§!J· In addition, evidently as representative
fo1r "the ne~-Jsp21per syndic ate, " possibly the Shannon~l3r eene
partnership which had purchased the ~iii~§Q in 1901, Winsor
began traveling about southern Arizona looking for newspapers to
purchase. After a trip to Tombstone, the !9ill~§!QD.§_Er:.Q§Qg£i.QL
claimed that ''Mr. Winsor is the most successful newspaper man in
Arizona, being to this section of the southwest what Mr. Hearst
is to older and mo·re thickly popula·l;ed sections. "14
But Mulford and O'Brien Moore came to a parting of the ways
in July and he left Tucson and the ~iii~§D.· On July 3, the I§illQQ
Ng~§ announced that ''Mulford Winsor has purchased the EbQ§!Ji~
~D.i§LQLi§§, and yesterday entered upon his new duties as editor.
and m.::mager of that pc:\p€0r·." Sl····olrtly then?after, he ao::quired the
assets of the Eb2§D.i~ __ QgmQ£L~i and, according to the Yuma
f:!r:.i;.QQ~_§go.ti.O.§lL "btxried th!~? no~..J defunct shE?et in the rear c•f
the ~!Jl§LELi§§ office. Mr. Mulford Winsor announces that a new
plant has been purchased and the ~Di.§LELi§§ will shortly come to
the front as a rE?al, fiYst class afterncn::.n pap!~r. "15
Those were heady days, as Mulford seemed bent on proving
the truth of the I2ill~§i.QD.§_E~Q§ll§£i2r:.:§ characterization of him
as "the=~ mof:;t ~~-;ucc!'?f:;f:;ful n(:-:wspaper man in .~lrizona." D~:-?spite.the
fYantic pace of his activities, however, he seems to have found
time for frequent visits to Tucson. Keno Brown, a young friend
of George and Lydia Smalley whom he had met in Tucson the year
previous, seems to have been the attraction.
It would seem, however, that Keno herself was not at first
thE? rn-incipal reason foy his visits. l·=::eno's parents, Jim and
Ollie Brown and their three daughters with their easy laughter,
their loving congeniality, and the hospitable welcome that they
extended the serious, reserved young businessman must have been a
tremendous contrast to the pious rigidity of Winsor's own home.
It is easy to understand why he found this casual, outgoing,
fun loving family attractive.
Jim and Ollie Brown had come to Arizona in 1879, settling
/0
on a r"<:>nch in Sahu<::wito. Five childr·en, C:laY"a BeatY"ice ("Keno"),
.James:. KilY"oy, Jy-. ("l?oy"), HaY"Y"iet Estelle ("Tootsie"), John
St f.~pht".mson ("John i e") and MaY" guey- it (7? Bt:?Y" nice ( "Bi 11 i e") were boY" n
to them while they weY"e in Sahuarita. Although they-loved the
isolated ranch on the stagecoach y-oute between Nogales and
Tucson, they Y"ealized that their children needed schooling.
Keno, the eldest, was sent to Tuc~on to attend St. Joseph's
Academy. In 18'3·::1, in oY"dE·r to keep the family togethel'" and so
that the youngey- childY"en could go to school, Jim moved his
family to Silver Lake just south of Tucsori. While nineteen
yeay- old Keno finished heY" classes and piano lessons at St.
Joseph's and enrolled at the UniveY"sity of Arizona; sixteen yea!'"
old Tootsie and eleven year old Billie y-ode to the school on
Congress Street downtown in Tucson on burY"os. The· two boys,
eighteen year old Roy and fifteen yeaY" old Johnnie, continued to
help out on the ranch at SahuaY"ito.
By the time Mulford met the Browns, they wey-e living in a
handsome two story house, the Fitch house, on Military Plaza not
far fy-om his friends, George and Lydia Smalley. Mulford seems
to have been most attracted at first to the now eighteen year old
Tootsie. Tootsie, however, showed no interest in /this short,
clean cut, good looking, fastidious young business man. In her
eyes he seemed pompous and stuffy, as well as terribly old -­being
all of twenty six. So Mulford, who seems to have decided
that it was time he married, dropped Tootsie and turned his
attention to Keno.
Keno Brown was twenty one. She had never found school
interesting, so she was no longey- enrolled at the University. A
svJe€~t, char·rning youn9 •n~oman, she danced well, played _the piano,
and recited nicely. As her daughter Eleanor characterized her,
"horses, peoplf.0 1 po-:\Y"ties, d1·esses, and dancing" interested ht-)r
moy-e than anything else.16 Mulford decided Keno would make him
an acceptable wife, so he began to court heY". Not only did he
single her out for special attention when he joined the Browns on
picnic outings to Sabino Canyon and the Santa Rita Mountains, and
on tl'"ips to theiY Y"anch at Sahuay-ito; he took her to the theater,
to Silver Lake, and to Carillo's Gardens. He had a fine singing
voice, and Keno loved to accompany him on the piano.
But Ollie, thinking back many years later on her dear .Keno's
life with Mulford Winsor, noted several incidents that should
have warned Keno of trouble ahead. First of all, Ollie ~nd Jim
were troubled by Mulford's su~erior moral attitude toward their
d<:\ughtel·'~.:; nic!-::rh::HnE·. "K£~no," he said caustically, "is the name
of a gambling game, and I py-efer she be called Clara, her proper
n.::ifne." Cl.:H·a shE~ wa~; -- to Mul f.:q·d. But her family and friends
continued to call heY" Keno.
Keno loved costumes. She had a beautiful Indian costume
that she loved to wear, letting her long black hair hang loose
about her shoulders. Ollie had a photograph of Keno in her
Indian costume, probably taken as she was about to go to a
p.::\l"ty. lr,lhen Mulford ·:::;,:;n .. J it, he tore it up. His fuWure ~ife was
not to be seen in public looking like a ~avage!
One of the most beautiful homes in Tucson was the palatial
·rE?sidence in "Snob Hollow" owned by General L. H. Manning.· ... A
ll
month or so before Keno and Mulford were to be married, they
were invited to a dance at the Manning home. Mulford came down
on the train from Phoenix in plenty of time for the dance, but
he decided he was too tired to go. Moreover, since he wa~ A6t
going, he did not think Clara should go either. Claia, ~ho
loved parties and dancing, was heartbroken. As Ollie remembered
it, "I thought he '..Ja~~ unreasonably selfish and cruel, and said,
'No matter what he wants I'd go if I were you.' Well, she went
with some friends, John and Pauline Metz. The ne~t day he acted
in such a mean way the engagement was broken and she gave him
back his diamond. That same evening he asked me to take a drive
with him, which I did. He said, 'What do you think of Clara and
mf:-~.' I s.::\id, 't1l". Winsor, I think it's the best thing that ever
happened, so much better now than later.' Oh, if only the
engagement had never b~en renewed, but it was the next day.
Christmas day of 1903 with a house full of wonderful mistletoe
decorations and small colored electric lights entwined; they
were married by the Rev. Mr. Selby, an Episcopal minister. She­was
a sweet pale faced little bride and Mulford a nice looking
I gr-oom. "1"7
Mulfol"d and Clara left immediately for the Winsor ranch in
the Yuma valley, w~ere Clara met Mulford's parents for the first
time. After the first of the new year, they moved to their new
home at 1135 West Adams, Phoenix.
"Thin£r:::- WE~nt well for a while," summarized Ollie,·· "then
Mulford became cold, arrogant, and unbearable-- became engrossed
in politics, spent most of his time away from home, and let Keno
qet along the best way she could. He was and is the most
mentally cruel man I know, yet I've always liked and admired
him" H3
1.C. L. Sonnichsen, !Y£§QQl _ tb@_bifg _ ~Q~_!iill§§ __ Qf_~D-~ffi§~i£~D
~iiY (University of Oklahoma Press, 1982), p. 161.
2. George Herbert Smalley,
Arizona Pioneers' Historical
3. Citi~QQ 1 Jan. 8, 1900.
~y __ 6gygoty~g§ __ iQ _ ~~i~QD9
Soc i et y, 1 '366) , p. 90-'3.1 •
4. E~:;tE=llt:~ Lt..rtrE~ll, "l',le•,.-Js.papers and Periodicals of Arizona,
1859-1911,'' YniYQ~§ity __ gf _ e~i~Qo~ __ §yllgtioL _ §gog~~l_§yllgtio,
no. 1~5, July 1':34'3, p. 102.
r.::: ~~?t-;_c.- ~.' ... /<'e.lh~ .. Le~tsl'o/~ f+,sf~! An~, /Ulf-UU2 ( Pio-evny, 191-t.)J
-...Ju '·--·'· x::;r[, ___ I It u ,pll -.lwll
6. Kelly, op. cit. p. 206 and passim.
7. Kt-?lly, p. 2l5.
9. Don Schellie, Ibg _ !Y£§QQ __ ~iti~gn~ __ 9 __ Qgoty~y _ gf _ ~~i~QQ~
Jgy~o~li§ill (Tucson: Tucson Daily Citizen, 1970, p. 69.
/d..
10. Smalley, Uy __ 6~~§DiYr§§ __ in _ 6ri~£D§~ __ Q£ __ !Q~£ Schellie's ~
research agrees with Smalley; see his Ibg_!YS§£0_~!i!~go, p. 70.
11. Sm<:1ll ey, p. 103.
13. fkhellie, p. 7•"":,
.I .. :..a
16. Eleanor Winsor Dav1s,
unpublished ms., p. 241.
17. Olive Stephenson Brown,
Davis; original in possession
18. Ibid.
"Ollie and Jim in Sahuarito,"
".JOL.lirnal,"
of E.W.D.
t r· anscr i bed by E. W. ·
13
III. NEWSPAPER DAYS: PHOENIX TO YUMA AND BACK, 1904-08
1904 was a hard year for Arizonans. The failure of the
International Bank of Nogales on January 14 was only a portent
of depressed economic conditions to follow. Drought cdnditions
in the Salt Piver Valley area surrounding Phoeni~; brought
economic hardship with them. Times wers hard for Mulford Winsor,
unc om for tab 1 y aware of the size of the mol~ t'gage on his E:b9§0i21
~Qt2LQLi§2, and the difficulty each month of making income equal
outgo. Jus·t ho•,.J this affect£~d Mulford's new bride, soon pregnant
with her first child, we can only imagine. The novelty of
sho•..,ing off his p1retty wife and of introducing her tc• his friends
and associates in Arizona's capitol city soon wore off~
particularly after her condition became obvious and she entered
thf:? cu·:;;tomary pe·r:iod of "confinement," when no p·r.:~rH~r w•:•man would
be seen in public. Worried about bills that arrived whether the
~QtQLQLi§Q~§ income was sufficient to take care of them or not,­Mulford
spent long hours at the newspaper office working. 'For
the first time in her life, Keno felt unlovely, neglected, and
unhappy. Yet she was excited over the prospect of having a baby
of her own. When her first daughter, Eleanor Winsor, was born on
Decembt.::'l·- 10, 1904,. it seemed the culmination of helr dreams.
Mulford, too, was ecstatic with his new fatherhood.
Shortly thereafter, Mulford was selected as Assistant Chief
Clerk of the Arizona House of F::epresentativei of the 23rd
Legislature. 1 George W. P. Hunt, later to be Arizona's first
elected Governor and a good friend of Mulford and Clar~ Winsor,
was elected president of the Council for that session. It is
possible that Hunt first made Winsor's acquaintance at thi~ time.
1'30~5 w.:;..s one of the years in which Joint s.tatehood (the
admission of Arizona and New ·Mexico as one state) was being
d£~bated in Congrf'~~;~~. t\s L·Jinsor recalled it, "In the 23rd t~1.ere
was no one--Democrat or F::epublican--to agree to jointure on.~ny
terms, and upon the recommendation of Governor Brodie Congi~~s
\.;.:;~.s memo·rializt:=?d for f·ree and unadulterated Statehoo.d. Abc•Llt :!#he
15th of February Governor Kibbey replaced Governor Brodie, an~~he
proposed an election to show Congress just how much opposed to
joint Statehood Arizona really was. But the Legislature was 1oo
econorny mindi':?d fo"r- that. It ~.;.::1s fairly liberal. -with
itself--though not as much so as previous legislatures--but it
would not go fo·r· thi:~ e;,;p!;?riSt? of an elt:=?ction •.. "2 ·
As may be imagined, these matters and others served as grist
for the mill of the young editor of the EbQ§Qi~--~D.i§LQLi§§, who
by hi:.:; O'""n account "li£-?t thf.? chips fall whel~e thi:-'?Y might,"
regardless of the fact that he risked making enemies in-high
places by his brash commentaries on Legislative events~and
personalities. Evidently this happened. Shortly after the close
of the 23rd Legislature's session, as Winsor remembered the·
incident, "the holder of the ~D.i§I.QI.i§§ securities sLtddenly
demanded immediate payment in full. I was unable to me~t the
demand without accepting proffered assistance from certain large
interests which then controlled more than one Arizona newspapei,
<::ind I declint:=?d UH~? offt::::;--. Unable to s<:":l.tisfy the demand of .the
importunate holder of an overdue mortgage on my printiDg plan~
rtf
I tur-n(~d thE:? pr-inting plant ov~?r to my ct·editor and moved CILtt."3
On .June 21 1 J. 90::5, the 6r:.i!f9!Jf! __ §§!Jii!J.§l announced that "Mulford
Winsor, Jr. has sold his interest in the Eb2§!Ji~_g!J!.§r:.er:.i§§ and
wi 11 retun1 to Yum.::1 and take ch.::n·ge of the Y:!.:.H!lsL§!:!D..!!..:' . Clara,
Mulford, and baby Eleanor established themselves in a smail fram~
house on Orange Avenue in Yuma, not far from the Madison Avenue
offices of the weekly Y!:!mf! __ §!.:\Q, and Mulford went back to his'
for-mer- editorial responsibilities on that newspaper.
Five months later, on November 15, 1905, Mulford Winsor an~
his a·5~50C.iatE"2S decided to phase C•Ut the weekly §!.,!Qy and tc;
establish a daily newspaper, a first for Yuma. First, .the
newspaper plant was moved from its old location on Madison Avenue
to a larger building on the north side of Second Street. A
Cottr-ell-Babcock cylinder press was purchased, an acquisition
which W1nso·r· latelr characterized as "an otherwise improved but
still plrimitive plant."4 The owners had hoped to tie their new
daily in with the telegraphic news service of the A~sociated­Press,
but this was not immediately accomplished. As Wins6r told
it, "The !:19t:.D.iD.!l __ §!JD. was c•f necessity definitely .a .local
ne•*•spapt:~·r·. It app(~ared regularly si:,; times a week, in company'
with the brilliant luminary from which its title was derived, but
since it had no. press franchise its coverage of news did not
equal the scope of the purveyor of light and heat. To this there
was one notable exception. When on April 18, 1906, San Francisco
and other California localities were shaken by one of the most
disastrous earthquakes in American history, everyone was eager
for news of succeeding events. A local Southern Pacific Railroad
train dispatcher ••. provided the answer. As press report after
press report from the scene of destruction came over the wires he
took them off and conveyed copies to the !:19!.!Ji!J9_~Y!J~ Du~ing the
period of excitement not less than two and sometimes thr~~­special
editions were issued daily, giving to the people of Yuma
a do•,.,•n-to-the-hour accot.mt of the ter··rible tragedy. n5
And so the daily newspaper now called !b§ _ YYillf!_§yo had its
inception. It was printed under Mulford Winsor's direction until
the following year.
On March 6, 1907, the 6r:.i~2D~--§§!J!.iD§l announced that "The
Morning and Weekly Sun, and the printing plants connected
therewith were on Monday sold to Mr. A. M. Foster, the well-known
job printer and newspaperman, who assumed control on Tuesday.
Mulford Winsor, the former editor and proprietor of the Sun,
~-Jill, •o~Je L.tndt.'?lrstand, engaue in farming in YLtma Valley." Mulfc•rd
and Clara and their two daughters (a second child, Margaret,
had been born February 1, 1906) left the house on Orange Avenue
and moved in with Mulford~s parents in the frame house south of
Although Mulford may have felt that the move to the valley
was e>~pedi ent:, doubl i n~J Ltp with Mulford's parents must hav'e
meant many adjustments for both families. CaroLine Winsor had
many traits which must have annoyed the generous, affectionate,
openhanded Clara; permeating the c•lder wc•man's character ~was,a
streak of religious piety amounting almost to fanaticism. Her
thrifty ways verged on stinginess. But above all Carolyn Wi~sor
ruled the family •rJith stern matriard1al dominati•::.n .. and ·-" ,-• . ~
unbendingly iron zeal. To give her her due, one must recognize
that it must have been hard for the older woman to suddenly find
herself sharing her home with a daughter in law and two noisy
littlE~ girls. In fact, the constant ir·ritation she prc•bably
felt having to live with Mulford's children, together with_the
resentment that must have gone along with living with a daughter
in law who did ned:; run the same sort of "tight ship" as she did,
must have been galling. Perhaps this was the reason that
Mulford's father decided to build another house on some property
he and Muffoyd had ear 1 i er acquired on the me~;a ·east of downtc•wn
Yuma. As soon as the house was livable, he and Caroline Winsor
moved, leaving the valley home to Mulford and his family. . ·<.
But it was some time before this occurred. In the meanwhile,
Clara tYied to make the best of the situation. She fit in as
best she could, helping her mother in law with her garden,
feeding the chickens, canning, taking caye of heY two little
children, and doing the innumerable chores that fell the lot of a·
ranch wife. This became incYeasingly difficult after she found
herself pregnant again, early in 1908. Mulford proved neither
sympathetic nor helpful. Seemingly quite oblivious to Clara's
distress, he betook himself once again to newspaper work and
other more interesting pursuits to be found in Yuma, leaving
Clara alone with a father in law who, she felt, was sometimes
inclined to be overly affectionate and a mother in law who openly
1''E!~3t."?nted heir. She had been brought up with the adage "a soft
an::;•.;,~.:,?;-- tLti·-neth away wr-ath," and so she k<;?pt her feelings tc•
herself and went out of her way to avoid antagonizing anyone.
Only late in her life, long after Carolyn Winsor's death, in
answer to her daughter Eleanor's query as to what she thought of
c:a·r-olyn dUl·-ing the year-s she lived •..Jith her, she said simply,· "I
disliked her.'' Probably to everyone's relief, sometime during
the first part of the next year, in the spring of 1908, the house
on the mesa was far enough along to be habitable, and the elder
Winsors took themselves to their new home.
How long Clara Winsor remained at the ranch in Yuma after
this is not known. She determined to go home to her beloved
family in Tucson for the birth of her third child. Sam~ time
during the fall she took the train for Tucson with Eleanor and
Margaret. Her third child, a boy, named Mulford after his father
and his grandfather, arrived on December 26, 1908.
Mulford Winsor was not in Tucson for the birth of his
'::;on. In fact, firom all evidenci?s, he seem<:-:d in no particular·
hurry to see the new arrival. He joked, in a facetious letter
written to his mother in law, Ollie Brown, after the event, that
ht;! was "puffE·?d up to t~-JiCE;) (his) normal size" with pride, and
suggested that Ollie accompany Clara and the children when she
decided to come back to Yuma.6
But Clara was not to return to Yuma, with or without her
mother, foy· many months~. She and the children remained in
Tucson with her family while Mulford once again took the train
for Phoenix. The Twenty-fifth Territorial Legislature of 1909
was about to begin its sessions, and Mulford was determined to
hc:-.ve a p<::n-t in it. ., ,.
l " 13£:-!()j"" 9€-'.!
(Phoenix,
H. Kelly, b§9i§l§!i~g _ ~i§!Q~~L--~~i;QQ§L __ !§§1=!2!~
1 ·:3:26) ' p. :2·=+5"
:;;::. Mul fo1rcj Win·:::.o1··, "Spe£:-!o::h to the Senate of Ariz.:•na, January
1'34~.5," t1l,.,! papE?·rs, Bo>; 6, folc:le-;-· 5, DL/';PF.:.
3. 1'"1ul for·d Win~-:.or, "New~5papers," types•::ript copy in E. W. Davis
notebook #:2, 1905-1909.
4. 1'"1ulfor·d t,Jinscqr, "First Daily PubJ.ishE:.!r "Gives
B<=?g inning, " :i!.dffi:iiLRsilL_§!dQ, St?p t • :25, 1 '353.
5 .. IIJidQ
6. Mu1 fore:!
copy, E. l.;J.
Winsor to Ollie
Davis collection,
Bt· own,
notebook
undated letter,
1 '305-1 '30'3.
types.:lr i pt
.:.•.
1/
IV. MULFORD WINSOR, TERRITORIAL HISTORIAN
By the time the Twenty-fifth Territorial Legisla~ure
convened in Phoenix on January 18, 1909, Mulford Winsor had
sought out his friend George W. P. Hunt, again President of the
Council, and possibly through Hunt's influence had be~n ap~ointed
assistant chief clerk to the Council .. Certainly Hunt, from what
transpired later in the legislative sessions, wanted Mulford as
his as.!:dst,:,:mt.
Clar~, still in Tucson with her famify, mu~t have been
wondering by this time whether she had been abandoned. A letter
from her, which probably reached him about the first of February,
spoke of her feelings. What Mulford thought when he read her
letter may be imagined. Certainly he had been neglectful in not
making the trip to Tucson to see his new son. But it was ~ long
train journey, certainly a good deal out of the way if one is
going from Yuma to Phoenix. And the trip from Phoenix to Tucson,­if
not quite as long, took the better part of a day, and for a
man trying to make ends meet on the small salary of an assistant
chief clerk, the expense was a further consideration. But
obviously a letter was necessary, to smooth things over. Heaven
only knew what Clara's parents thought of him, to say nothing of
his Tucson friends. Mulford's letter to Clara of February 5 is a
masterpiece of contrition and conciliation. Apologizing for his
seeming neglect, he promised to do better in the future.
Beginning a litany which Clara was to hear all to often in the
future, hi':? cc•nt i nued, ·~I was di sap pointed at not bei 11g able to gc•
over to Tucson and see you and the babies ••• but I had the work
piled up so that it was impossible. I might be able to run down
some Saturday night, but the expense is so much that !_think
probably that will not be advisable either.· At the worst, it
will not be very long, if nothing happens, before we will be
going hom(~, and then, I hope we wi 11 have time to bec.;::.mt=:?
c:icquainted oncE~ more .•• ":l. ,,.
"If r·1othi ng happt:ms... we wi 11 be going home."· . But Mulford
was hoping that something ~QYld happen, for George W. P. Hunt,
President of the Legislative Council, and his friend Mulford
Winsor were quietly laying some plans. On Tuesday, March 9,~the
plans came to fruition. It seemed probable to Mulford, if matters
went according to schedule, that he would not take Clara home to
Yuma for quite a while. As reported by the aLi~QQ~_B§~Y~li£~Q,
";.\mong sevE?"rEd bilLs b·rought into the council yesterday and
at once put through under a suspension of the rules was one
creating the office of territorial historian and providing for
the collection and compilation of all available data regarding
the earlier history of the territory. The bill was introduced
by President Hunt .•.
"It ~_;hall be the duty of the Arizona historian t•:• c•:•1le•:t
data of the events which mark the progress of Arizona from its
earliest day to the present time, that an accurate record may
be pr~?<::>e-rVE?d of thost=:? thl~illing and heroic occurrences; -t;hat
knowledge of the achievements of Arizona's trail blazers rna~ not
perish with the passing of her pioneers, but may be perpetu~ted
c.-1.nd disseminated for the benefit of the present and f.U,,~Ltre
.;.._.
I~
generations; that the names of those whose lives were and are
identified with the establishment, the progress, and the
development of Arizona may be given just and lasting recognitjon.
It shall be the duty of the historian, in the performance of
such duty, to travel from place to place, as the requir~ments of
the case may dictate, and to take such steps as may be required.
to secure the data necessary to the car~ying out of the purposes
and objects herein set forth.
'Tor thE~ purpos€~ of paying the salary and defraying the
office and traveling expenses of the historian, the following
sums are hereby appropriated annyally: To pay the annual salary
of the historian the sum of $2,400, and to defray the traveling
and office expenses and other expenses actually and necessarily
ino::urJ--ed in secuy-ing hi~>to;--ical data, and ccompiling and
classifying the same, $1,800 per annum, OY" so much thereof as
may be necessary •••
"It is s.ai d th-::;t in the eve·nt of the enactment of the bi 11,
into a law Mulfoy-d Winsor, assistant chief clerk of the council,
who has for some yeay-s been interested in the early histoy-y of
the terY"itory, will be put forward for the appointment to the
office of historian. "2
Mulford must have known that
wrote his letter of Feby-uary 5
hint of any such possibility. ,6,s
it would be the better part of
would be together again.
this was in the wind, when he
to his wife, though he gave no
matters worked themselves out,
a year before Clara and Mulford
The bill, which seemed non-controversial enough as far as
the legislators were concerned, was sent forward to the House,
where, as had been done in the Council, it was hurried through
under a suspension of the rules.3 But at this point it hit a
snag. Sharlot M. Hall, bill clerk for the Council in the previous
legislature, one of the attache positions which Winsor had
coveted but for which he had not been selected, had the backing
of the powey-ful Arizona Federation of Women's Clubs as th~ir
candidate for the historian position. Without daubt, Sharlot
Hall was at least as qualified as was Mulfoy-d Winsor for the
position. Outraged, the F~oenix Woman's Club decided to take
a stand against the Legislature's seeming chicanery. The next day
the combined Phoenix Woman's Club and the Arizona Federation of
Women's Clubs submitted an official protest to GoveY"nor Joseph H.
Kibbey, offering the name of Sharlot Hall as a more qualified
candidate.4
What was Governor Kibbey to do? Unwilling to further rouse
the wrath of the powerful clubwomen of Arizona, he addressed an
open letter to them. Appearing in the same issue of the
E@QY~li~~Q as the women's protest, the lettey- explained rather
uncomfortably that the govey-nor had obligated himself to appoint
r1ulford ~..Jin!:~or. As he put it, "Some two weeks ago:• MY". Mulford
Winsor, a democrat, came to my chambers and broached the subject
of the creation of the office of territorial histori~n ••• I
approved the plan and suggested that Miss Hall would be admir~bly
qualified to fill that position. He said that the legislature
would, however, pass a bill creating the office if he, Mr.
Winsor, would be appointed to it .•• The altey-native presented to
_,._,·
me was to have no such office at all, or consent to appoint Mr.
Winsor to it .•. My judgment is that I decided wisely to have 'the
office, even though I could not designate Miss Hall to be its
incumbent. If I had insisted on Miss Hall we would not have had
the office established, so that my action in no event can be
deemed to be a want of recognition on my .part of her worth
c:1nd fitnt.~ss. "5
Thus, on March 18, 1909, the last day of the twenty-fifth
and final Territorial Legislative Assembly, Governor Kibbey
signed the bill which became Chapter 94 of th~ Laws of Arizona;
An Act to provide for the collection, compilation, preservation
and publication of the historical data of Arizona.6
As the Territorial legislators scattered from the Capitol
to their homes in various parts of Arizona, Mulford Winsor began
to plan for his new assignment. Interviewed in his office in
the Capitol Building, he told the reporter that he would be in
Pho(::?ni :'l; foy three oY foul'" months "woYking over s.::.me mate·rial that·
he has collectedy before starting out on his travels over the
territoyy .•. Before he can even begin this work, he will have to
get a list of the best souyces of information, the names of
old-timeYs •.. The immediate need of the office was to obtain the
f<Kts fy-om these €?i:\l~ly settlers, who aYe fast passing away. "7
But even as MulfoY"d began gatheYing material and planning
his strategy for the most efficient collection of AYizona
histoY"y, events in Washington weY"e moving which were to make a
change in his plans. As soon as William Howard Taft was
inauguy-ated as President in March 1909, he exercised his
pYesidential prerogative to appoint a new governor for ~he
teYY"itory of AYizona. Sharlot Hall's friend, Judg~ Richard E.
Sloan from Prescott, was summoned to Washington a few da~s after
the inauguYation. Back home in Arizona, everybody kne~ why.
RichaY"d Sloan was to be Arizona's new governor.B
Even before Sloan's May 1st inauguration, Mulford Winsor
expressed his appYehension to his friend and supporter, Georg~ W.
P. l·-lunt. In a l(:?tt(':?r dat<::"?d Ap·ril 29, he sai-d, "There is
undoubtedly a somewhat prevalent belief that I am to be displaced
by the incoming GovernoY ••• I must confess to you that I cannot
entirely avoid anxiety •.• If there is anything you can rea~onably
do... to influence him against the carrying out of the rumor's
plrovi~-ions, I ~-Ji~::.h you would •.•
"I hav!~? he<:."\rd it rumol~(':?d that .JudD<,"? Slc•an, bein\;_~ a Pr-esco:d;t
man, would naturally be pre-disposed in favor of Miss Hall, she
I::H:?ing a Pt"t'?scott woman. "'3 · ,,,,
By deliberate intent or otherwise, the new~Gov~rnor did
not make himself available to speak with the Arizona Histori~n
until May 5. The results were discouraging. As Winsor told Hunt,
"~,Jh:lle he was '·vt~·ry glad to 1<::"?<:."\rn the circumstances,' he wa!s
exceedingly non-committal. He told me there was strong pres~uie
being by-ought to bear, expecially by the ladies, to induce him to
appoint Miss Hall, for whom, he admitted, he had a great deal of
Yespect and admiration. However, he had given the matter no
thought or investigation as yet, and would take some time to
investigate and decide it 'upon its merits,' which of course
means that he l.>Ji 11 decidE· it as he sees fit. "10
Meanwhile, Mulford continue with his activities, gathering
materials toward his prospective history of Arizona. By the end
of th\-:2 month, L·J:i.n·::;o1·· ·r"e?pot·i;t:.-?d to 1·1unt th.::..t ''I am going right
ahead with my work, and have made much greater progress than I
anticipated. Ordinarily there might be some hope that one's
enthusiasm and progress would attract.attention of a favorable
character, and to that extent act as a recommendation; but the
Governor has never evinced the slightest disposition to pay any
attention to what is going on, or to care whether I were
accomplishing anything or not. It rather leads one to the belief
that he may be afraid that he will find, should he investigate, a
condition which will not justify removal •••
"If I should bE·? iiTl~('·n·f(;?rE·?d •...Jith in the? ~,tork I am doing it
vJ:i.ll undoubtt:.?cHy bE' thE' £;!Ye<::itest dis<:l.ppointment of my life • ."."11
At the end of the fiscal year, Winsor submitted his annual
report to the Governor to account for his activities through
June 30, 1909. The report suggests his conscientious attention·
to his duties. The collection of oral histories was his top
priority, and from his own account, his accomplishments in
contacting Arizona's oldest citizens were impressive.
In addition, to remedy the crying need for an adequate
collection of Arizona source materials in the Capitol, he had
begun to gather government reports, War Department records,
Congressional documents, and early histories of Arizona as well
as private diaries and manuscripts preserved by descendents of
Arizona pioneers. Beyond such primary sources, he had used funds
alloted to the Historian's office for the purchase of rare and
important volumes of Arizoniana. By the time of his report, the
collection consisted of 366 titles, housed in the office of the
And finally, as an aid to the writing of the definitive
history of Arizona which Winsor saw as the task of the Arizona
i···l:i.sto·r":i.an, ht::! l;Ja·:.::. p·rE·pa·rin£_l <::in outline histoyy o:•f Arizc•na. ''It
will not be intended for publication, but rather as the framework
upon which to erect a more elaborate structure; but, despite its
incompleteness as to detail, I shall hope that it may more
nearly approach a comprehensive History of Arizona than any
single publication that has so far been issued, and form the
basis of a work which will accurately and completely set forth
all that is known or may bP learned of ArizonaYs intensely
inteY£:::~;;tin£l and mos.t c-r·E~ditabl.e!! pa·:;t.''12
Had Winsor yetained his office long enough to complete the
monumental task he set himself, Arizona might have had the
detailed, comprehensive State History which is still lacking.
But this, though he did not know foy a certainty at the time,
was not to be. Even as he prepared his annual report, he
remained apprehensive as to his future. In a letter to his friend
l3i.~o·r·gE~ Hunt on ,Jun\·:0 18, hE::: ~:;aid, '',C;s for the? SEtfety of my .job,
that is as problematical as ever. I haven't had a word of any
sort from the Governor. He has ignored the office as completely
C:t·::;. tl·"iOU\;ih j_ t; di dn y '(; e:·.{:i. ·:;;;.t; u u u
11 13
All through the long hot summer Mulford Winsor traveled,
corresponded, visited with old timers, and collected artifacts
and manuscripts. The first of September saw him back in Phoenix
with a suitcase full of old manuscripts and records frc•m Pima ~nd
Yuma Counties.14
To\-JaJ"d th£?
•v.~h() had bE~f.?r< in
end of the month, his nemesis, Sharlot M. Hall,
Los Angeles doing research at the Southwest
Museum most of the summer, returned to Phoenix to confer with
Governor Sloan. Then Winsor was called into the Governor's office
and asked to resign. Winsor refused to do so; instead he sent
Sloan a letter, declining to resign and setting forth his reasons
for his position. Of course, said he, he realized that the
Governor criuld remove him if he saw fit to do sa.15
He was removed. On October 1, 1909, headlines in the 6L!~QD§
8§Q!::.!.Q.li£.2!J. bla;:::onG~d the news: "Historian of Arizona -- Miss
Sharlot Hall Succeeds to that Office Today; Replacing Mr.
~..Jin~:.or·." ,.;nd dc-?~:;pitE• the gloomy prediction in tt1e Prescr::rtt
JQ!::.!.LDfll_~i!J§L that ''Miss Hall may dr::r as well (as Winsr::rr), but we
doubt it, "15 the appointment stood. Mul foJ"d Winso1" cleaned c•ut
his desk and returned to his ranch in Yuma.
1. Mulford W1nsor to Clara Winsor, Feb. 5, 1909, typescript,
E.W. Davis collection.
~"2u 11 F'~1Cief-li ~< Bi 11 t() t3CI\/e"r .. nCI}'", II 8r:.i~Q[!.§1_8§Q!:!Qli£EO, March ·:3~ 1'3()'3 ..
3. 11 L2\;;lislation's Last
19!)';3.
March 13,
E... Arizona Territory. 6£i§L _ 8§§QlYii2D§L _ §D~--~§illQLi~l§ __ Qf_ibg
!~§Di~=Eifib_bgg!§l2ii~g_6§§§illhl~ <Phoenix, 1909), p. 23-36.
7. 11 N£?1,.,.' Cl f f i c £?~:; ~., i J. 1 Open , 11 6Li!;.2!J.sL§§!f§ii§, Met r c h 30, 1 909.
'3. l''lul for· d
collection,
E. SJ. o.:tn may
G.hi.P.
fol df.?"l'" 7.
Hunt, April 2'3, 1 '30'3' Hunt
10. Mulford Winsor
bo:·,; 1, fol df.?r 7.
to Hunt, May 7, 1909, Hunt Collection, ASU,
11. Winsor tn Hunt, May 28, 1909,
folc:lf.?Y 7.
Hunt Collection,
12. Mulford Winsor, Arizona Historian, to Governor
Sloan, 8§i1Q~t, July 1, 1909, typescript, DLAPR.
ASU, bcr:.-; 1,
13. Winsor to Hunt, June
,<\SU, bo;,; 1, folch'?r 7.
18' 1 '30'3, typescrip.:l; ,. Hunt C•:•l Lecti.on,
14. "!thnsol" tn·in£;!S back m.::my old Papers, 11
SE?pt. 2, 1 '30'3.
7-
-A-r-i-z-o-n-a- --G--a-z-e-t-teL
;:
" '~ ... :-
·-~- .
.. -~ . . .
l E,. "lrJi n s;o·t" d i d not r· es i g n as His t C•r- ian y " lf!!::!L!J.sil_t!i!J.§r.,
1'3(Jl3.
Oct. 5,
lJ. THE 1"1t\K I NG OF t"\F:: I Z ON I>," S CONSTITUTION
By October 4, 1909, Mulford Winsor was again at his Yuma
Valley ranch, still smarting over his summary dismissal as
Territorial Historian, but somewhat mollified by a kindly letter
from his friendly supporter, George W. P. Hunt. With the definite
possibility of statehood in the near future, politics wer~ on
1-lunt's mind. It w.::t~; none too ear-ly to be certain that the
Democr-atic Party was strongly in place, with active committee
r-epr-esentatives in ever-y county, r-epresentatives~ of ~ourse, who
thought favorably of one George W. P. Hunt as a viable
possibility for- Democratic par-ty candidate for Arizona's first
state governor-. Who would better be the Secretary to the
Democratic Par-ty of Arizona than Mulford Winsor, suggested Hunt.
Winsor was flattered that his mentor Hunt wanted him on his
team, but he r-esponded cautiously, indicating his interest,
while reminding Hunt that since he was no longer Arizona
Hi~=;torian, he must return to ranchin£1 fo1r his livelihood. "o~:..s for
your unduly kind e:,;p·re~;s;ion regarding myself," said he, "I c.'ln
only say that I will never fail to do whatever lies in my power
to work for thE? party's good."1
Clar-a and the. children joined Mulford at the r-anch and
he settled into a pleasant r-hythm of activities which often
took him into Yuma. Here he worked from time to time for- J. H.
Westover, now editor of the ~Q~Diag_§ya an~ visited with his
mother- and brother Walter in their house on the mesa not far- from
the §YD office. In addition, as Deputy Gr-and Exalted Ruler over
the Elks Club of Arizona, on Mar-ch 20, 1910, he laid the
cornerstone of the new Elks building in Globe.2
While Winsor was in Globe he visited his friend Hunt. Did
the two men talk politics? Or did their conversation turn
per-haps to the fact that Mulfor-d Winsor, an old newspaper man,
was cur-rently without editorial employment? From events which
transpired shortly ther-eafter, one may surmise that their­conversation
had something to do with both topics.
George W. P. Hunt, a self made man who had ar-rived penniless
in Globe in 1880, was general manager of the Old Dominion
Commercial Company and president of the Old Dominion Bank at
Globe as well as a long time Arizona politician. A m6derately
wealthy man who was outspoken in his pr-ogressive political
philosophies, Hunt had as many enemies as friends in his
hometown. Globe 1 s well established daily newspaper, the
Republican oriented __ 8~i~QQ~_§il~g~--~§lt, took every opportunity
to snipe at his political aspirations.
A few months before Winsor-'s and Hunt's chat, John 0. Dunbar
hac established what he hoped would be a mouthpiece for the
Democratic party, the Q~il~_§lg~g. Whether Hunt bought out the
RDil~ __ §lg~g is not known, but it seems almost more than
coincidental that on May 27, 1910, Mulford Winsor was announced
a£; br~.i. ng thr~ ne•,1 "sponsor for the pol i o::y of that paper ."3 From
this time, the §lghg became the vehicle for Hunt's progr-essive
political ideas.
Winsor's connection with Ibg_§lghg came at a crucial time in
Arizona's political history, as Congress battled over the long
awaited Arizona statehood bill. The bill had passed the House in
January 1910 1 but not until June 16 did the Senate ~ass it.
Dubbed "thE? ·~nabling act," it·:;; py·ovi·:;;ion~~ c<alled for del<:-"?gate~; to
a constitutional convention to be selected by county conventions
rather than by direct primary election. A further provision of
the act was that the resulting constitution must be approved by
Congress and the President before Arizona would be admitted tn
the Union as a State.
WinsQr's first important editorial, sounding a clarion call
fo-r· ''/"orizonav·:;; F-::E?~::.p.:::on<sibility, '' appear-ed on ·the pagE!S of Ib.§
Q~ilL __ §lQ~~ on June 20, 1910, the same day that jubilant
Arizonans learned that President Taft had signed the statehood
bill. Embodying for thE? first time in print three of the most
controversial ideas in Hunt's proqressive philosophy, Winsor
statr::>d th:::tt ln-izon<::l mu~:;t h.::.;v<~ "a p(;?ople's constitution •• with
power tn make such laws as they may choose, to reject such
proposals as they may not want, to select such officers or
di·"3char-g£~) them a.s; tht'-!ii" int£~)"f.E'-!·:;t m<::\Y dem..:.1nd. '' In othe·r- words,
;;ri;:~onE•'·=· con·:;titution mu~:;t h;,;;.ve ''as it~:; foundation ·:;;tone •••
I r-J :i. t i E1 t: i \l£7:' 7 F:e f t::.•lr E'-!n durn, dn d i?E·c a 1 1 • '' 4
On June 27, Governor Richard E. Sloan called a special
election for September 12 for the selection of delegates to the
constitutional convention. If Mulford Winsor wanted to be one of
the delegates, he would need to begin his campaign for election.
He thereforE? turned the paper back to its owners.
The September 12 election found both Winsor and Hunt
elected as delegates to the constitutional convention. But Winsor
aspired to higher office than mere delegate from Yumd County.
With utmo·:::.t diffidl:·?nc•c::, he a~sk(~d Hunt~~; ·:;;upport a~> ''candidate fo·r­the
po~~it:ion of p-r·E:::o~:~ic:linsl offict'?r of the Convention. "5
Meanwhile, as the Q~ilL __ §lQ~~ cautiously stated that it
suppor-tF~d tJoth l..Jin~~or and Hunt, and that "either- would make .::.in
admirable prE·~::.iclin9 c•fficer," 6 Hunt was qLlietly laying the-~
groundwork for his own candidacy. Because of the lopsided
majority of Democratic delegates to the convention, it was a
foregone conclusion that the President of the Convention would be
a member of that party. But that president was not to be
Mulford Winsor. At 10 a.m. on October 10, the Democrats caucused
at the Phoenix Elks' lodge. On their third ballot, G.W.P. Hunt
was voted Convention President.?
Although Mulford Winsor played an important part as a
delegate and chairman of two important committees to the
Constitutional Convention, this disappointment may have been
a key to some of the problems he would encounter in his future
\:::ffort:s to t-i~:;E· politically. f~iCcor·dinL~ to one obselrver, "At thr-i>
time of the constitutional convention the delegates were pretty
well divided into the 'liberal' Ctheir opponents called them
radicals' and the 'conservative' (called reactionaries by the
opposition) camps ••• On a straight showdown of power (Mulford
Winsor) could have been elected by about 2 l/2 to 1. But the
conservatives figured he was too radical and there were some
rumblings of an open break if he were elected. Ordinarily this
would not have mattered, but President Taft was opposed ~~
(radical ideas such as Initiative, Referendum, and Recall,
particularly the recall of Judges) Hence, if ••• statehood
was to be achieved, it was necessary that a pretty well united
front Cat least on the surface) be presented. At this poirit, in
order to maintain a united front, G. W. P. Hunt was agreed upon
as the compromise permanent chairman ... Had (Winsor) been named as
permanent chairmany he would also h~ve b~en selected as a
candidate for either governor or one of the th~ee congressional
pc,·:st:sll u a
11 8
Hunt, .however, received general support from both radicals
and conservatives. He seems to have been an admirable convention
leader, both astute and tactful in his dealinq~ with a sometimes
intransigent group of men. He soothed Winsor'; ·wounded feelings
by appointing him chair of two committees, the only delegate ~o
honored. Indeed, Hunt in his unpublished autobiography indicated
that l·1e made a c.:::.nscious effo1rt to "be fair and .just in all of
thE• questions that c~::\me before the body." '3
The most controversial propositions before the convention
were those of initiative, the right of the people to initiate
legislation; refE?rE?ndum, the right· of the people to re.ject laws
passed by the state legislators; and recall, the right of
Arizona's electors to recall elected officials wh6se performance
th~:-?y d:i<j not con~:;:i.d(:-?r- sati~:;f.::""tcl;ory. Debatr~ on the matter started
on No\/C~mbE·r· 4, a r,;;dny day which left Phoeni~;'s unpaved streets a
mora·:;~; of slimy, sticky clay, "the navil;_lating •:Jf which wa~:;
dant;,lel'·ous alike to temper and clothing," accolrding to the .8r.i;.Q0:9
§2~£tt£~!Q Perhaps the hazards of getting to the Capitol
buildin9 fl··ayE')d allrf?C:;dy und'c~rtain tempers of delegates, some of
whom agreed with Governor Sloan and certain members of Congress
that these radical measures might endanger Arizona's chances of
gaining statehood. At any rate, according to the same newspaper,
thi:-:-:• "Ro~v (bef.~an) €?i:\lrly (and) continued throughout (the)
sess:;ion."l1 At thE·? conclusion of thf.:? debate, initiative,
referendum, and the controversial recall including the recall of
judges was made a part of the Constitution.
Chaplain Seaborn Crutchfield, an old Texas sheriff and
circuit riding preacher ct= well as father to one of the
delegatesv opened each morning's deliberations with. prayers that
became one of the most memorable features of the convention. As
t1ulford Winsor rE~caller.:l, "In perfect jus.tice it must be said that
if the convention's deliberations did not in e~ery instance and
particular result as might have been desired, the fault may not
be laid at the chaplain's door, nor ·may the Lord in such event
plead lack of knowledge of what went on day by day, for every
morning He was given fully and frankly the latest information and
gossip and his aid was invoked in style unique and language
app(:-?aling." On the day follo•..Jing thE? ski·rmishes c•ver Initiative
c.:;nd !?efer-t'i'ndum, Seabolrn py·ayE·:d, "Lord, I hope the delegates will
construct so good a constitution that the newspapers 'of the
country will carry the story under flaming headlines. ~And Lord,
we hope that President Taft will not turn down the constitution
for a little thing like the initiative and referendu~. L~rd, you
will be doing the people of Arizona a favor if yo~ will so
influence the President that he will let us have a government of
our own. Lord, don't let him be so narrow and partisan as to
. ..~---
"l"t~fUSE! Ll~O:- SE~l f-!;,lC)VE•·(nmt-?nt. ''12
A flurry of concentrated effort in the last few weeks
brought the delegates to the close of their deliberations within
the Congressionally mandated sixty day congressional limit. At
3~30 p.m. on December 9, delegate F. A. Jones moved adoption of
the Constitution. At 4:10, the rollcall of the delegates began;
at 4:17 it was completed. Mulford Winso~ was proud to remember
that his was thr:! last n.::\m€~ called,. "and his affirmative respons£~
signaled the birth of the organic act of the State-to-be of
Arizona. A moment la~er George W. P. Huni of Gila County,
President of the Convention, formally announced: ~'Gentlemen, the
Constitutic:or1 of ti·!Et St.::\te c•f ·~·(izona has been adopted.'" 13
"It wa~; a rath€-?r- dr,':."lmatic moment," concluded Winsor, "that
signalized the completion of sixty days of hard and conscientious
work as was ever given to a stated task by any similar body of
men.'' 14 And indeed, the State Constitution which the delegates
crafted in 1910 has remained, with some amendments, as a solid
basis for the framework of laws and ordinances by which Arizona
governs itself today.
1. Mulford Winsor to
Collection, ASU, box 1,
Hunt, Oct. 4, 1 ·::J0'3, Typescript, Hunt
2. Dated picture of cornerstone laying ceremony,
collection.
E. · W. Davis
:::: If ~J i J. 1 i C.ifil 1-l~·l t t i c J··i 'I E~di tOi" i al 1 May 27,
1'::;! l (I A
1910, Hunt Sc;~apbook, UAz Library,
Special Collections.
5. Winsor to Hunt, Sept. 15, 1910, Hunt Collection, ASU
6. Q~ilL_GlQ~g, Sept. 22, 1910, Hunt Scrapbook, UAz Library.
7. Hunt, ",t.:;utobio~F·E:\pl· .. ~y," typ€0Script, p. 96. Hunt papel"S, DLAPF.:.
8. Kent Crosby to Eleanor Winsor Dav1s, June 1, 1960, EWD
Collection. Crosby's information came from his father, George H.
C:;~o~;by, ,J-r- n f fi r-·::;t C()Unty attornE?Y of Graham County and a good
friend of W. T. Webb, convention delegate from Graham County.
·:3. Hunt, "liutobio~Jr-Etphy," p. 103.
11. ''Convention bE·?t"l"ay~; people of Ari.~:CJna,'' fir.i;.QQ2_§~;.§:ii§:,
Nov. 4, 1 '31 0.
12. Mulford Winsor, pencilled notes on the ConstitutiCJnal
Convention, Winsor Collection, box 2, folder 3, DLAPR.
:t:3. 1"1ulfor-d lrJins:.or, "Statehood in
manuscript, Winsor collection, box 3,
the balance," typewritten
folder '3, DL.6,PR.
14. Winsor, pencilled notesy Winsor collection, box 2, folder 3,
DLAPR.
. -~ .
VI. THE ROAD TO STATEHOOD
Even before the formal completion of the Arizona State
Constitution, Hunt, Winsor, and M. G. Cunniff were setting
strategies for the campaign for the ratification of the
constitution by Arizona's voters. By the end of December, Winsor
had decided to repurchase his old newspa~er, the Yuma §YQ• As he
told hiE; h-i<end Hunt, "I canYt kc·?i:?p out of thi7? game; there is
absolute nscessity for a paper that will and can fight the
people~s b~ttles~ and while Yuma is not the logical headquarters
for such C:-'\ new·==·f-iaper, it is better th.::in none. II However, fYiul ford
lacked funds for the purchase. Would Hunt, perchance, be
inclinE·d to inve·:;t ".:.i few hundred dollars in stock?"1
Whether Hunt helped to finance Winsor's purchase of equity
in the §yo is not known; by January 5, however, Mulford had taken
over the editorial responsibilities of t~e paper, leaving J. H.
Westover to handle business details.2 In addition, though he had
stated earlier that because of his personal financial
difficulties, he would not be able to campaign outside his own
county, by January 9, he had changed his mind, deciding to speak
for the cause at least over southern Arizona even if he had to
pay his own expenses. 3
Hunt, too, was on the road, stumping for the new
constitution. Discouraqed by negative receptio~ in solidly
Republican Tucson, he returned to his home town, Globe, about
the end of January, only to fall and dislocate his arm~ Still
in pain, he went to Bisbee on February 3. Here he found Mulford
Winsor and Maricopa County District Attorney George Purdy Bullard
ready to open the campaign in that area. As Hunt recalled the
E::>V0minfh "~...Jhen I W0?nt into the hotE?l with my arm in a ·"sling and
face still showing signs of my recent accident, Winsor shouted
with laughter and made all sorts of fun of me. That night he.and
Mr. Bullard spoke. Both made fine talks, but in the morning
thf:.n-·:e ~.J.::1.~; ju·:;t one lint~ in the f!i.§!;;l.!E§ __ E;g~i.§~ to the effec-t that
they had spoken. So I had my fun then, telling Mr. Winsor the
laugh was on him, that undoubtedly if I had been on the platform
thEre would have bE?E?n .:.; front pa9e story. "4
Ratification day came on February 9, and to no one's great
surprise, the new constitution was approved by a large margin of
Arizona's voters.5 A delegation of twelve prominent Arizonans,
led by G. W. P. Hunt, went to Washington to lobby Congress in
favor of statehood. Unable for financial reasons to make the
trip, Winsor contented himself with writing a well thought out
and, he hoped, persuasive letter to President Taft, asking
Presidential approval for the constitution.6
But meanwhile, as Arizonans followed the torturously
slow progress of the statehood bill through the houses of
Congress, some of the Democratic leaders felt sure enough of the
c:::>ventu.::'\1 ·:;ucce~.;·:;ful outcomE~ of th(·? cau~~e to begin makin9 a .few
plans. As early as May, Hunt wrote to Mulford Winsor discussing
prospective Democratic contenders for State and National office.
Many prominent men were interested in running for the United
States Senate. However, said Hunt, as far as he knew no one had
E•;,;pr·es:.·:~E~d intE~y·est in Arizona's Congressi•:•nal seat. "Now,·~ ,sa~d
1·-lunt, "if you h,:i\.iE~ aspir-ations for- Congr-ess, and your- speech in
Bisbee demonstr-ated to me that you can hold your own with any of
them, why not indicate to some of your- friends what you would
like. If you should decide to enter the field for either House
you would be a formable (sic) candidate ••• I feel that the
people will insist that only a man who is absolutely known as a
f.H·oqr-E·?r:~siv!e can win •.. Let me hear from you." 7
Winsor was definitely interested. In July he began stumping
the southern par-t of Ar-izona, saying nothing of any per-sonal
aspiration~ for- public office, but urging stat~hood even at the
cost of tempor-ary compr-omise on the matter- of the recall of
jud~:H~S mea~,;ure in thE;! con~:;titution. In Phoeni:,; "for· a brief
bL!~;inr=?s':; vi~;it, 11 he madEo? himsi·:.:>lf available to a reporter frCtm the
{jr.i.;s.f!!JfLDgmf!f.:C.€!1:.!!.. "St<:rt:ehood is what we w<ant," said Mr. Winsor.
"i~ftE:l~ •,,J£7! gE·t statE~·hood we wi 11 have more power in Ctur hands than
we have nCtw, no matter- what the constitution under which we are
admitted .•. Even with the judicial recall eliminated, we will
have a much better constitution than many states have and it
•..J ill be ea~;y of amendment." According to the reporter, Winsor
claimf:o?d to b•co? "taking no p;:~rt in public affairs ••• " Hc•wever,
stated the repor-ter, though Winsor claimed to be no more than a
·;;;:i.mplE~ ·l",:.:~nchei·- on. the c:olorado below Yuma, he was nonethel1:ss
"popul<:tr- in his county among republicans and democrats alike, and
when Ar:i.zCtna is a state, it is nCtt at all unlikely that he will
be chosE~n fo-r on£;! of thE• important offices. 11 8
Sh(;.rtly th•:=?r-f?<:~fte·(, a joint r-esolution p·l'"c•viding for-statehood
was passed by Congress. As was fully expected, on
August 15, 1911, Pr-esident Taft vetoed the measure, giving as his
l~f.o.•ason the "PE.'r-nic:iou~:. eff£7!C:t 11 of the .judicial recall sectic•n in
the Arizona constitution. Congr-ess passed an amended risolution
for statehood on August 21, with the stipulati6n that at the
first general election in Arizona the people vote to remove the
judicial recall clau5(7-:>. Everyone, h-om the simplest Arizonan to
the Pr-esident of the United States, knew that thi~ was a charade,
since Arizonans had already vowed to replace the clause in their
constitution as soon as they gained the coveted statehood--but
that was the condition. To no one's surprise, as soon as
statehood had been achieved, Ar-i~onans reinstated the .judicial
recall clause.
But meanwhile, the primary election was drawing near, and
on September 8, 1911, Mulfor-d Winsor formally announced his
candidacy for- the Democratic nomination for Co~gressional
F.:i.:-:-pr-e·::.r=?ITtative. ;.\ ler1£;Jthy articlt"o? in tht~ X!.:H!.l§! __ §l.:!!J. 1
simultaneously pr-inted as a four page pamphlet, included his
Declaration of Pr-inciples, stating that he stood for the
Initiative, f"":<::?fE?Y!:?ndum, and F.:ecall, including the recall of
judges. In addition he favored a Corrupt Prattices Act t6
safeguard elections against briber-y, intimidatiCtn, and fraud.
He favored direct election of United States Senators, and the
abolishm•':?nt of th~:.:> st:?cr-et p<:.w·!;y caucus. As he phr-ased it, "The
pc::!c'l::•l t."0 hi:i.Vf.·? a r- i £.~ht to know what their servants are dc•i ng. 11
Summing his philosophy up in his belief that ''Life, Liberty and
thE~ Pu·r':;uit of H<:\ppiness arc:! the inalienable rights •:•f all men,u
he declared his love for Ar-izona and asked the voters of Ar-izona
to gj.vt.:> hi1n d "comm:i':~;s:;.i,;::.n to str-ug!;;iJE~ on, fo1r hE~l'" and in he1r
name; to fight her battles in the Congress of our Nation; to
represent the cause of ProgY"ess which she has so enthusiastically
and so emphatically espoused; to be officially a servant of the
pE':!oplE'y C:\S ur·;offic::i.<:illy I have been c:il""";d am, one of the people.''9
Winsor mounted a concentrated campaign, completing a swing
of the northern counties of Arizona by the end of September. As
th0? 6t:.i.£:2!J.@: __ QS:£E:t:te .::.;v•::?·;'"f"(?d, "h<·? ha·::; ·receivt?d hundr-t?ds of
pledges of support and is confident that he will win the
nom:i.n,'::ltion~ "10 HE? joinE?d ("j. W. P. Hunt, candidate for dt:,:-~no.::·rati.::
nomination for Governor, and Eugene Brady O'Neill, candidate for
democratic nomination to the United States Senate, in Prescott at
a Democratic rally in the Elks Theater on October 9.11 The
following day Winsor and Hunt traveled to Phoenix, where Winsor
seized the opportunity to express his confidence in his election
to.:::; QS:;-;.Q:ttt~ ·r-•::?po·r-ti::?r. "~I am going to win,' said Mulford
Winsor this morning as he stepped from the train fresh from a
campaign tour of the five northern counties of Arizona.
'Sentiment in the north ic the same as in the south and I
believe there will be a democratic landslide at the general
election. Voters are doing a lot of deep thinking this campaign.
I have been impressed with the serious, thoughtful attitude of
every audience I have addressed. I believe every voter in the
s;t.:::ttG~ kno•.;Js; todE•Y ju~..:.t he•. ., .. hE· is £.40ing to \/Ot0"? •.. ''1:2
It would seem that Winsor's chances for selection as
Arizona's Democratic candidate for Representative were excellent
-- except for one problem. His opponent in the Democratic
primary race was the popular sheriff of Maricopa County, one Carl
Hayden. And despite a last minute plug from the friendly ~~i~QD§
§i;i£s.tl.f:~ ~:;u£_~g(·::::<:;t:Lng that voters ''Nominat(? Winsor- for- thf:·? loW€':!r·
branch of Congress and you will have served your own best
Winsor's final heroic effor-t~:;, he was:.
On October 25, the morning after the primary election, when
the votes were in, the none too friendly 6Ci.£QQ§_E§QY~ii.~§!J.
Winsor ... combination went to smash.
seems to have been thrown overboard.
t.Jas. concerned •••
Ther •"2 t,.;ill be
But Wi nso1r
somE·? large~
e:,;p:J.c;,inir·;~i to bE! c:lor"ic::., t:let•.Ne·:o~n thi~;, timE' and the el<:':!ction. ''14
The survivor, of course, was George W. P. Hunt, who
campaigned for governor in the general election of December 12
against Republican Edmund W. Wells. The result of that election
was almost a foregone conclusion~ the Democrats swept the state;
George Hunt was elected as Arizona's first State Governor, and
Carl Hayden became the State of Arizona's first Congressional
Representative, the start of long, distinguished careers for each
of these outstanding individuals.
Mulford Winsor's disappointment in the failur~ of his bid
for Congress was alleviated by the continued encouragement of
his friend G. W. P. Hunt. Always loyal to his supporters, as
soon as he was elected Governor, Hunt cast about for a suitable
government post for Winsor. As he remembered the occasion some
yr::.~;;;i·;--~"· late·ir in l·"";i::". autobj.Of.~l·-aphy, Hunt s.aid, ''Sho·rtly after the
election I received a letter from a group of Democrats in
..31
Phoenix who had ..• selected my private secretary. I immediately
wrote back and thanked them for their suggestions, but stated
that as far as my private secretary was concerned, I felt that
w~1~::. my pren:.g.::.;ti\:e, and that I should select him. "15 The man Hunt
had decided on was Mulford Winsor.
Although Governor-elect Hunt remained at his home in Globe
until the day before his inauguration,16 Mulford Winsor checked
in at the Ford Hotel in Phoenix on February 10, leaving his
family behind in Yuma.17 Indeed there was little enough time
remaining for him to complete the first of his important
assignments for Arizona's new Governor, the writing of Hunt's
inaugural address.18 On Wednesday, February 14, 1912, all Arizona
waited for word to be flashed over telegraph wires that President
Taft had signed the proclamation declaring Arizona to be a State.
At 8:55 A.M. whistles all over Phoenix blew to announce the glad
news, and the inauguration celebration began.
Meanwhile, the principle actors in the event were quietly
waiting in the lobby of the old Ford Hotel at Second Avenue and
Washington Street in downtown Phoenix, about a mile from the
State Capitol building. At 11:18, the governor-elect turned to
hi~=· fr·iend and secr·etary and said, "Well, Mulford, I guess we'd
bettt.?r be going." ."All right, gc•vernor," replied Winsor. "I'm
And thereupon began one of the most unusual gubernatorial
processions in the history of the United States. As reported by
tht:~ £:!r.i.~Q!J§! __ §£~.S:ii.@r "the two emr::!r-ged from the doors of the
hotel, turned westward and before hardly anyone of the big crowd
assembled inside and outside the hotel was aware, had begun the
milt::·~ ~-Jalk to th<::;:o stat£·? capitol." The fact that West Washington
boasted neither sidewalks nor paving did not deter Hunt, who
waved the offer of a big touring car aside and strode
purposefully down the center of the street, Mulford Winsor by
his side. And such a procession it was! The crowd of onlookers
fell into step behind them, walking in twos and threes west along
dusty Washington Street. Automobiles, bicyclms, buggies,
motorcycles brought up the rear or raced on ahead of the governor
and his party in order to get a better vantage point on the
capitc:.l grounds.
At approximately 11:50, governor-elect Hunt entered the
cap1tol building, dressed in a brown suit, with a white carnation
:i.n his buttonhole. He walked up the stairs to the second floor
corridor and from here stepped out onto the portico of the
Capitol. Here, promptly at noon, George W. P. Hunt of Globe
took the oath of office as the State of Arizona's first
governor.19 Then, following an invocation by the Reverend
Seaborn Crutchfield, whose prayers had made colorful the daily
sessions of the Constitutional Convention in 1910, Governor Hunt
delivered the beautifully phrased, carefully crafted inaugural
address that Mulford Winsor had labored over with such telling
t:dfl:'~ct, clc)sinf.:i '..J.ith th!:-? ringing line~.:;: "I p·romise a F.:ul(: of the
People, and in their name I accept this great and grave
responsibility which they have conferred and at their will can
take away. At the close of my stewardship I shall return the
emblem of my brief authority free from stain or dishonor,
di~sloyc.ilty, st:~l fis:.hne~3S- o:w meannes~:; of pu;~pose. "20
Festivities continued with a forty eight gun salute--a blast
for each star in the new flag of the Union--and a parade starting
at the City Hall plaza that included every organization in the
c1~y. In the evening a reception was held at the Hotel Adams
with dancing on newly swept and washed Central Avenue in front of
the Hotel, illuminated by electric ljghts strung across the
street.21 At least that was the plan. With people packed elb6w
to elbow in the street, it was impossible to dance. But
nonl!.et hel e~;s, as th~? 6r:.i:IQfl!il\ __ Q@ffiQ~:C!1t averr •:?d ~ "enthusiasm ran
high; the carnival spirit was in the air, and Phoenix spent a
joyous evening.22
And thus closed the most exciting day in Arizona's history.
Arizona was launched into statehood, and G. W. P. Hunt began his
career as the most colorful, longest tenured governor in
Arizona's history.
Mulford Winsor, he
1. Mulford Winsor
:1., folder- 10, ,C.SU.
for his friend and private secretary,
ne•'"" position.
to Hunt, 1910, Hunt collection, Box
3. ~·Jin,~or to Hunt, Jan. ·~r, .t"::H1,
10, and Winsoi to Hunt, Jan. 20,
Hunt Collection, box 1, folde1~
1'311, bo:"; 1, folde?r 13, A!3U.
4. Hunt, "t-iutobiO£ii·-aphy,". p. 110.
5. "Constitution wins," QgilL_§il:::::tn:._E!@lt, Fe:-:b. 10, 1'311.
rS. Win~:;or- to Taft, Feb. 11, 1·:311, quoted in .J.
Ibg_~ir.ib_91-~r.i~9DD (Phoenix, 1940), p. 32-33.
7. Hunt to
c oll ec t ion,
Winsor, May 14, 1911, typescript copy, HLtnt
bo:,; 1, folder 14, A!3U.
D. II Stat E:)h ood i ~; the t h j_ n g y says win so·r ' II er.i~QDfL!2§!!lQf.:Csi, July
26 y 1 ·~'11 .
·:~. "t··1ul f c•r rJ l.Ji ns:.cq~ 1 Yuma ,c,l~ i zona, " pamph 1 et ~~ epr i nt ed
Yymg_§yQ, Sept. 8, 1911, E. W. Davis collection.
11. Poster, Hunt scrapbook, v. 3, UAZ.
12,
from Ib§
1'311.
13. "Look "for- O'N(;?ill, IV(7?S, and Winsol'" on the Primary Election
B<~'ll J. ot 1 " ~r.i.S9!J.SL59:I.§i!..S, Oct • 21 , 1 '31. 1 •
1. 4. "~·Jell·:; S~t.Jeeps Entire
1911.
Oct. .-.t:" ..::.""J,
_,:·,
1G. 11 13ovt.'?n1olr E.lt:.?ct Hunt and Party Leave foy Phoeni~;," QEil:t:
§il~~~-~~lt, Feb. 13, 1912.
18. J. Morris Richards, Ibg_~i~1b_Qi_e~i~9D9 <Phoenix, 1940)' p.
r.:::.:~
-....J'...J =
1 ·::;;. 11 l::k•vE•l'" n Ol'" Hunt W<:\ 1 k ~; to the St: at\:'? Cap i to 1 , 11 8r.i~QD9_§§~§:t:t.g,
Feb • 14·, 1 '312.
:::::0. 11 13. lrJ. P. 1-··lun t ... :::> n o·~J 13ovel'" n ol'" of Al'" i zona, 11 8r.i;.QDfLQ§illQf.L9i,
F !7.?b. 14, 1 '31::.:-~.
21. "State r-:::ec:ept:ior·; • .Jill be held at Hotel Adams this EvE·ning,"
Br.i~QD~-§~;.gttg, Feb. 14, 1912.
:~::~"2 a II l''h C!l.t -==·~1f'l d ~- at t 1·-1 e t1ctr't s t €~¥" F.:E'C ep t i ()n' II 8r:.i!fQOS _ Q§ill!2£r...ei, F f:~b AI
VII. MULFORD WINSOR, STATE LAND COMMISSIONER
The new governor and his secretary seem to have worked
togethE!t- to thE~ir· mutual Sc:\tisfact:ion. · Who knows how long
the arrangement might have lasted had a seemingly innocuous bill,
H.B 17E3, "Provichnfi fen- the pay of state officers in certain
casE?~=-," not b<~<~n p.::3S:o5ed almost at thf:? c"lose of the first regular
session of the legislature on May 18, 1912. Two days later, an
unfriendly newspaper had sniffed out a scandal. It seemed,
-::"1cco:::.rding to the r-;(0!t,Jspaper, thc.-~.t "the certain cases" meant
t·1ulfo-r·d t·Jin~:;or. "It i~:; ~;aic:l," continued the <::Kcount, "this bill
was introduced solely for his benefit. But if this is the
program it means a change from a program said to have been
adopted some weeks ago. Under this old report ••• Win~or was to
be made the state historian and librarian under an arrangement
which contemplated the consolidation of the two positions under a
rather munificent salary ... What Mulford don't (sic) know about
running for office, getting beaten and holding another milking
grip on the public teat, wouldn't fill many books. Already his
J.atest sinecure has become the capital scandal of the 'big salary
and lit·tle job. 1 "1
What Hunt thQught of this attack on his secretary is not
known. But he had no intention of abandoning the man who had
already proved himseJ.f to be not only a staunch ally but also a
master of the well turned phrase, as proven by the mellifluous
oratory of recent Hunt speeches. As prescribed by terms of the
Enabling Act that made Arizona a State, Arizona had been granted
for the benefit of the common schools four sections of land in
each township, to be taken from public lands within the borders
of the new State. In addition, the Federal Government had
granted 2,350,000 further acres of public lands to Arizona for
the benefit of certain institutions, a total of more than twelve
million acres of land. In order to survey and select the land, a
State Land Commission was created by Act of the First
Legislature, approved May ~u, 1912. 2 The Governor was empowered
to select the chairman and two other working members of the Land
Commission. Fortuitously, he had not done so. On June 4, he
named Mulford Winsor as Arizona State Land Commissioner.3
That Winsor was not a trained surveyor does not seem to have
been a factor in the Governor's decision. Actually, his chief
qualification for the position seems to have be~n his six month
stint as Yuma County tax assessor in 1900. The matter seems
quickly to have been taken care of; on June 1, Leroy A. Ladd,
Hunt's loyal friend who had worked as publisher and editor
of the Q§ilL _ §lQ~§ during the campaign for the first general
election of state officers, replaced Mulford Winsor as Hunt's
secretary. The Land Commission, with Mulford Winsor as
Chairman, Cy Byrne of Pinedale as Secretary, and William A. Moody
of Thatcher as member, assumed its duties on June 4, 1912.4
Hot as it was in Phoenix, the new Land Commission members
mapped a sensible strategy. Piling into the Apperson Jackrabbit
automobile which had been purchased for their use, the three
Commissioners and their chauffeur headed for the high country of
Northern Arizona. Here amidst the cool pines they would begin
their survey of potential state land acqu1s1t1ons.
By the end of September, Winsor and Moody returned to
Phoenix to report progress, leaving Secretary Cy Byrne, Chauffeur
Ivai McCann, and the automobile at Holbrook. As a friendly
§~~§tt§ reporter put it, a~ soon as the commissioners could
compl;::::t£·? theil~ r.;:~por·t to the 13.:::.vernor, "they will hLn~ry back tc:o
Holbrook Cas) it is the intention of th~ commissioners to work as
long as possible in the northern part of the state. When the
·::;no'.-J b0?qins to fly th0?Y will wo;--k down south.'' Having traveled
more th~n .2500 miles, Chairman Winsor was enthu~iastic about the
Comm:Lssi.::.n \leh:icle. The Jackrc.'tbbit, said he "has gc•ne wherever a
wagon can go, and in some places where it would be extremely
difficult to take a wagon .•• The tires have held up in great
·::;h.::lpe," alwc:;ys a considel'c:-ttion when traversing At-izona'.s wretched
unpaved roads.5 Indeed, Winsor seems to have had a wonderful
summer traveling, camping out, and generally immersing himself in
the grandeur of Arizona's vast open spaces.
Winsor does not seem to have returned immediately to
Holbrook. Probably at Governor Hunt's request, he attended the
meeting of the Democratic State Central Committee held September
30 at the State Capitol, to draft the party platform for the
nt:~:d; el£~ction. It .•.;~ould seem from sevE::ral newspapel' account~:;
that the radical element of the party, as represented by Hunt and
~~in~,:.(n-, was in tr·oublt-:·:. />,s the );;l __ Efl§Q _ J:!§:Cf!lf! put it, "The
meeting of party council was one continuous and long drawn out
fight in which the conservatives won on all counts. Each faction
had a draft of a platform and while full and over-discussion was
permitted the conservative steam roller was in good working order
and the radicals under the leadership of Mulford Winsor didn't
get a look in. There was even a fight against the endorsement of
tht-~ rE?caJ.J.. "6
If these intimations of political trouble were not enough,
Mulford suddenly found himself up to his eyeballs in hot water
on the domestic front. With Mulford first in Phoenix working
as secretary to Governor Hunt and later on the road traveling
about Arizona as Land Commissioner, Clara and the three children
had returned once again to live with Clara's parents in Tucson.
Eleanor, the oldest, had been enrolled in second grade in the
Tuc:;on r,;chool, with hE:r WE·ll lovf".:>d "Aunt Toc•tsie" as the teachf?r;
t"'l<:u'·g,;,u'et ("f.-HstE•l'") 1,...•as a fir·~=;:!:; gradE£-r, and four year c•ld
Mulford, who about thi~; time acquirE?d th0? nickname "l"lud," .wa~:;
a prE~s.cl···,o::)oler.
Those were happy days, for the children, at least, growing
up in the close and loving family of Jim and Ollie B~own. But
what Keno thought of her role as a single mother raising her
children in her parents' home with no husband in evidence may be
imagined. From time to time she must have read newspaper accounts
of Mulford's activities. Perhaps she read of the October meeting
of the Democratic Steering Committee. At any rate, she seems to
have known that Mulford was in Phoenix. Late in October, without
telling him she was coming, she took the train to Phoenix, and
confronted him. A week later, Mulford wrote a long letter to his
rnotl···:er- ir·, law, ClJ.lie 1 o·i'" ''Ba Bown,'' as she was called by her
family. Of what passed between Clara and Mulford in his room at
the Ford Hotel he said only that ''when Clara demanded the reason
for my coldness, I simply could not be a humbug, and I confe~sed
that it was not in my heart to be otherwise. And then of course,
carm·? a full disclosu·(i.:?." l.Jhy his dissatisfaction·"? Mulfor-d laid it
to "Clar·a~s ir .. ,abilJ.ty tc• g·,ra~,;p ti··H:::• s;.ub.jects which have had to do
;,,;:lth my hopf·:?£> of ach.i.ev!2meJYt." Whet}H:?r- this was thi:? whc•le story
or not, they discussed the possibilitj of divorce-- a solution
that evidently was unthinkable to Clara, despite her years of
unhappines~ and their long periods of separation. Nothing was
r-esolved at the end of the painful discussion. ·Mulford promised
Clara that he would come to Tucson on November 9 to talk further
with Papa Jim and Ba Bown, whom he seems genuinely to have liked
and r £:?s-:.p<::-!c ted. 7
Mulford traveled to Tucson the following Sunday. Evidently
he and Clara agreed to try once again to live together as a
family. Nonetheless, as he explained to the Browns, he could
not yet establish a home for- them so they could be together-. His
duties as Land Commissioner required that he be on the road
almost constantly. Per-haps by Apr-il of the following year- ••.
And so Keno, still unhappy, r-emained with the children in
Tucson and Mulford returned to Phoenix and his travels about the
statE·. "If it wer-e mer-ely to '1 ay dCt•..Jn Ctne' s 1 i fe' to serve a
good purpose it would not .•. be such an impCtssible thing; but to
live together lives which are nCtt attuned is the height Ctf
tr-agi:?c:l)l·''8 ,.:),t l<:'?a·:;t so it se0?m!~?d to Mulfor-d Winsor.
The rest of the year seems to have passed in a routine
fashion. At least the Land Commission's doings seem nCtt to
have been spectacular- enough tCt have rated headlines in the
local newspaper-s. Per-haps this was a r-elief to those most
concer-ned. Whether- MulfCtrd WinsCtr- spent any part Ctf the Christmas
holid<"::iy~; with h:i~; family in Tucson is not known. Indeed, one may
wonder- whether he gave any thought to the promise he had made to
his father- in law to pr-ovide a home for- his family in Phoenix Ctl'"
elsewher-e by the first of April. But if Mulford had fCtrgotten,
J. K. Br-own had not. On March 22, he sent him a terse note~
"~)ir·: (:an you pl·-ovide C."'l homE• for- yoLn·- family between now and thE'
lst of Apr-il as per- promise of Nov. 9 1912. If not they can go
to thE• HotelJ. (~;ic) t;y~ith you for- a time•. F.:esp€ilctfuly, J. K •
. Sr-·o'.-Jn. "9 ( .. J. K. Bro1.-Jn to MW, holof_{Yaph, E. W. Davis collecti.;)n)
Mulford Winsor rented a house not far from the capitCtl and
moved Clar-a and the thr-ee childr-en to Phoenix.
The Winsor-s were to live in the house on 614 Fourth Avenue
for- a little over a year. For- EleanCtr-, thCtugh she hated to leave
Ba Bown and Papa Jim and schoCtl with Aunt TCtCttsie as her secCtnd
grade teacher, the move br-ought new fr-iends and new exper-iences.
Hei·- mothf.:-!i'" ·:;;tc.·wtecl Eleanor- .:u1d "Sister·" Ctn pianc• lessons at the
Christy School of Music downtown in Phoenix and she made dr-esses
~vit:h mc:d;chin£.~ blc:.ornE":!Y·s for- both girls. "I had big ears," recalled
Ele<~incw, "c.ind I hea·(d my mother- telling Mr-s. Cavaness, a neighbc•r
friend of my mother, that whenever she sat down at the sewing
machine she felt very sad. Daddy was nCtt hCtme much. He was
always going on trips. He scCtlded me a lot and I didn't think he
•,.-Ja.'::; vr::2·1ry much fun.''
Ba Bown and Papa Jim must have been aware of their-
31
daughter's plight, as they came up from Tucson frequently to
visit them. Very often Clara took the children to visit their
grandparents in Tucson. Even Gover~or Hunt must have realized
the situation at the house on Fourth Avenue. This kindly, warm
hearted man liked Clara Winsor, and knowing that she had no way
t:c:; !;.H-7!·1; ar-ound Phoe:,rd.x with her children e:,;cept by streetcar, he
•...Jould send th~2 official stab? <:."'lutomobile with Chauffeur H.:.~rry
Shea around to pick them up to take them on short excursions.10
But meanwhile, feeling that he had taken care of his fa~ily
responsibiiities, Mulford Winsor ietur~ed hap~ily t6 his first
love, the machinations of Arizona state politics. The second and
third special sessions of the first Arizona State Legislature met
between January and late April 1913, with little progress on
measures of interest to Progressive Democrat Hunt as well as the
Chairman of the State Land Commission. As the second session drew
near its close, Winsor became increasingly anxious at the
perceived hostility of some of the legislators to the work of the
Commission. Legislative authorization was necessary for the
continued furiding of Commission activities, and despite a
certain amount of subtle prodding, nothing had happened.
,t.,t la·::;t, to\,J<::n-d the end of March, he ·met with the
legislators to disc~ss the record of the Land Commission during
its first nine months of operation. According to certain members
of th<::~ StatE• Lc~£,1isL::ltL.llre, it was not until he had been "put •:•n
the gr-ill" at a recent meeting Clf the Association Clf Bc•ards of
Supervisors in Phoenix that the members of the Commission did
anything more substantial than travel about enjoying the great
out of doors and drawing their substantial salaries. In a sudden
buy-;.;;t of activity following the Superviscq·-s' m~eting the
Commission managed to select 75,000 acres on behalf of the
stat~?. This, to the legi~slato·r-s, did not look like vey-y li1Ltch to
show for nine months in office. Winsor was predictably
indignant. As he explained the matter, it was not until the
Supervisors' meeting that the Commission finished its extensive
and complex planning for the selection Clf the-state lands.
Winsor,s statement seems to have been met with considerable
skepticism by members of the legislature, who suggested that he
"~:;top playing politic~:; and devotE! his attention to the duties C•f
hi~:. office." Noting his continued effo·r-ts as Govr::?rn6r Hunt'-:~
unofficial speech writer, the IY£§QD-~iii~§D reporter commented,
"r·\s Bo~-;•,~t=.:>ll to 13o'·IE·~'lrnor· Hunt, they rE~alized t~1at he has been kept
pretty busy of late with the ax committee of the legislature on
his hands •.• The Citizen suggests to Mr. Winsor that he eschew
politics, stumping tripsf defenses of the governor and himself,
and devote his time to selecting the lands granted under the
enabling act ... At the rate he has been going, it would take
fourteE~n yec:1r·::; tc:. mc:l.k£0 the selection .•. "11
Despite legislative reluctance to sink more state money
into what seemed to most of them to be a highly inefficient
operation, during the last week of the third session, Senator
Da··h.s of Marj.copa County intiroduced Senate Bill 75, "to cc•ntinL.ie
for two years more the present state land commission and provide
it with sufficient funds to carry out the purposes of the land
cod.:::?. . . " Th i ~:; W<='~·"=· pasr::;ed by the House as House Bi 11 _31 and
signed by the governor on May 17, 1913.12
Winsor's activities as Chairman of the State Land
Commission seem to have made him more aware of the potential
value of Yuma area land. Early in March in conjunction with Cy
Byrnes, John Bolin, James McDonald, and G. W. P. Hunt he
purchased 150 acres of prime Yuma acreage at $60.00 per acre,
•.,,;ith Hunt puttir-HJ up $4,500, half the money.13 A •.-~eek later,
l..Jin~;or- tLtl·-n<:::d up anotht~r "e:,;c<::"?ptionally fin<::"? deal (which) will
make us some money, absolutely without a question of a doubt, and
vJith no po~5sibility of lo~:;~; ..• "14- ,<\ft<::"?r- some · he~;itation, Hunt
sent Winsor a draft for $2400 for more Yuma land. As he noted,
with this investment he had sunk more than $8,000 in Yuma
pl"Opt~i'·ty. 1.5
But though Hunt spent a pleasant Memorial Day holiday
dinner with Mulford and Clara Winsor, enjoying Clara's
enchiladas, of which he was very fond,16 trouble was brewing for
the Chairman of the Land Commission. The root of the problem lay
with the powerful Santa Fe Pacific Railroad Company.
Under the Federal railroad land grant act of 1866, in
order to encourage railroads to extend their lines across the
sparsely settled western sector of the United States, the United
States government granted railroads willing to undertake such
activity alternate sections of land, forty miles square, on
either side of the railroad line. Thus, the Santa Fe Pacific
Railroad Company had legal title to thousands of acres of land in
the odd-numbered sections of land forty miles on either side of
the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad line which ran through
northern Arizona. As it happened, a number of the alternate
sections granted to the railroad lay within the boundaries of the
Hopi Cor Moqui, as the tribe was then called) and Navajo Indian
reservations. Under the terms of the Indian Department
Appropriation Act of 1904 these railroad grant sections could be
<::?:,;ch,::.no<:::cJ fo·r- vacant public lands ''of equal area and value and
£3ituatE•c:l in thf;? s;ame State or TE-:>r··r-itory." This was cc:dled "lieu
lE.ind <;?:>;ch,·,:wP;Jt"~." In most in!stancG?s instt~ad .::.f th<::? railrc•aci
exchanging acreage directly, it sold the privilege of selecting
li.:::~u land~; to E1noth<-~r .:_._gent, issuing a document called ''scrip.''
Thi·";, docurnent: ct-z•l"ti fied thc:'lt the railroad had ''surrendered to
the United States a specifically described parcel of land and
that it authorized the purchaser as the railroad's so-called
attorney in fact, to exercise its lieu right. It left the space
for the name of the purchaser blank and as soon as the proper
compa.ny o·f"ficial si\;_~nE~d th<::? scrip anyone COLtld Ltse it.'' The
holder of the scrip selected a parcel of lieu land and submitted
his selection to the local United States Land Office. When the
selection was approved 1 a land patent was issued to the railroad,
and the railroad company deeded the land to the purchaser of the
'o::.c rip. 1. 7
This seemed fairly straightforward and above board.
Beginning in 1910, approximately 345,000 acres of alternate
railroad sections from the two Arizona reservations were
exchanqed for lieu lands in other parts of Arizona, the railroa~
working chiefly through brokers who purchased scrip in large
blocks for resale to individuals. These buyers, some of them
39
cattle men interested in increasing their holdings and some of
them small farmers, bought thousands of acres and very quickly
made their selections. Some of the largest acquisitions were
large sections of grazing land, particularly in southwest
Arizona. Most of the rest went to individuals who originally had
been interested in taking up smaller claims, from forty to 320
acres under the federal desert land acts. Later, finding that
title to their holdings could not be secured for at least four
years, many such persons turned to obtaining land through the
scrip method.18 As the Land Commission began·its selection of
federal lands for state holdings, even more prospective settlers
moved quickly to buy scrip, in order to acquire desirable
holdin!;_~s. on fedel"<:\1 land br."'for·e these weJ"e taken up by the State
under the Enabling Act grants. .
The State Land Commission seems to have become aware of the
Santa Fe Railroad Company's lieu land selection activity during
the latter part of the yea~ 1913, when Winsor, Moody, and Byrne
were notified time after time that supposed federal land,
available for the Commission's selection as state holdings, had
been preempted by the railroad or its .agents. Winsor looked
into the federal law governing such exchanges and noted that
though the exchang~ of railroad land lying within the boundaries
of the Navajo and Moqui reservations was certainly l~gal, in
order to qualify for exchange, the· lieu lands selected must be
''of E·qual ar·ea and value.''
Were the acreages selected by the scrip brokers and the
railr·oad fo"l'" r(::?Sal(?. "of equal value," as required by law?
Early in 1914, Winsor asked Moody and Byrne to check into the
value of ra1lroad lands on the reservations, and to compare
these values with those lands selected elsewhere in Arizona as
lieu lands. Not unexpectedly, he discovered that the reservation
land ~.;,JD.s. "~;o :i.n~~i!;.H·df:i.c:ant in value that in no legitimate way •••
could the railroad company ever have realized out of it an
appreciable sum •.• An altogether liberal valuation of the land
would be twenty-five cents an acre, yet the scrip wh~ch stood for
it¥ costing the buyer from two and a half up, was applied to
carefully selected land -- in fact the best unappropriated land
in the State certain to become very valuable .•. in many
ca~;.E?~:. (22.sily wo·rth t•#enty-five dollars an acre."1'3
At this point Winsor lodged an official protest with the
United States Secretary of the Interior.20 In response, the
Department of the Interior suspended approval, or patenting, of
the lieu lands in process.
As can be imaginedy individuals who had purchased scrip in
good faith from brokers or the railroad were outrag~d; many
of them feared that they would lose their homes together with all
of the improvements which they had made on their acreage. They
were encouraged by the railroad to write to Arizona Senators
Henry F. Ashurst and Marc Smith as well as to Governor Hunt,
protesting the action of the Land Commission. The letters poured
into the Governor's office by the hundreds; Hunt turned them
over to Mulford Winsor. Winsor did two things in response.
F"i·r·<:;ty to e,:.'lch pr·ote!;ter hE? s.E·?nt a fo·r·m lettet· stating that ''the
State Land Commission has made no protest against the patenting
'-f-0
of any specific scrip selections or against such selecti9ns in
any specific section or locality. The Commission's attitude, in
the performance of its very plain duty, is merely that of
desiring a compliance with the law ••. This course you, as loyal,
law-abiding citizens of Arizona, will undoubtedly approve ••• If
the land in which .•. settlers are interested is not of greater
value than the lands in the Indian· Reservation relinquished
to the government by the railroad company, it is the opinion of
the Commission that they need have no fear that patent will not
issue. If, on the other hand, the lands in which they are
interested are of much greater value than the ••. base lands, and
they should become innocent sufferers through misrepresentations
of those who sold them the scrip to place thereon, the
Commission, while sincerely regretting their embarrassment, will
be compelled to disavow any responsibility therefor. You are of
course aware that the Commission has nothing whatever to do with
the final determination of the matter, which rests solely in the
hands:. of the Sec:r-et-."':i·ry of the Intel'. i or .•• "21
In May 1914, the Secretary of the Interior called Winsor
to Washington for a hearing on the matter, setting the dates for
June 9 and 10. Arizona newspapers, all of them supporting the
ird:LJ.iroad and the -landholdt?r·s, coverr~d the hearings in great
detail. The Commission's lengthy report to the Secretary of the
Interior was in three parts: a general review of the controversy,
a statement regarding the base lands on which the scrip was
issued, and a description of the lieu lands, accompanied by
numerous detailed maps. The first day was taken up with Winsor's
prt?S5E:!ntat:ion of the re:,po1rt; on the second day la•...Jyers
representing the large cattle companies and the scrip dealers
spoke in opposition to the Commission.22
Although Winsor seems to have acquitted himself ably before
the Assistant Secretary of the Interior and his ·hostile
opponents, he made no points at home in Arizona. As an editorial
in the Iu!;29!J_Liii;..sr.J. pL!t it, "How long are the ta:"J;payers .:,f the
state going to permit this heavy drain on the public treasury?
Will they submit for another two years to the dictation of this
diminutive boss who insults bona fide settlers who are trying to
d•=?V\·:·?lop ti···1is g·;-i.O?<::tt stc.;te?''23 Having made as much currency as
they could from the facts of the controversy itself, Winsor's
enemies seemed determined to damage him personally as much as
they could manage. First, the manager of the soL!thern Arizona
based La Osa Cattle Company, one of the purchasers of the Moqui
and Navajo base scrip,issued a formal protest to the State
Auditor against the payment of Winsor's expenses for his trip.24
Next, an alert ~iii;.go reporter ferreted out of the State
Auditor's office the information that Winsor's railroad fare was
paid not from Phoenix to Washington -- but from Phoenix to New
York City and return. Worse yet, at the time that the news was
published on June 24, the dilatory Land Commissioner was
presumably away from his job, enjoying the delights of the Big
City at Arizona taxpayers' expense.25
When Winsor returned to Phoenix in
to refute the newspapers'
trip to New York City. He
contentions
continued to
July, he made no effort
or to justify his side
defend his stand on t~~
4-l
matter of illegal scripping of lieu lands in a low keyed fashion
during the rest of the summer, but the primary election of
September 8 took much of his attention. With the press sniping
simultaneously at Governor Hunt and Winsor, calling Winso~ the
real governor of Arizona and stating (probably correctly) that
Winsor~s marvelous command of the English language could be
detected in George W. P. Hunt's set spee~hes,26 the two men felt
equally under fire. Yet it seemed almost a foregone conclusion
that Hunt would emerge victorious as the Democr~tic candidate.
Despite sa0age attacks by his opponent, Dr. H.· A. HOghes, this
proved to be the case.27
Hunt and Winsor immediately began to campaign for the
November election. Predictably, the generally unfriendly
Arizona press tied Hunt's record to that of Winsor, calling
h!in~;cq·- "th\:-? bos~;:; of thE:! statE:! machine," and reminding ,t;rizon,::t
voters of the still unsettled scrip controversy. This, stated
thr? I\d~2Q!J_hi.:ti.;s.sQ .;:~dito·;", could be coY"rected "by the election of
.:,-, go\/£·?r·no\" who will tui"n Winsol" out.''28 Nonetheless, though
Winsor may have made many implacable enemies with his stand in
the matter of scl'"ipping lieu lands, Hunt's pey-sonal popularity
carried him to victory on November 3 against both Ralph Cameron,
his Republican opponent, and George U. Young, running on the
Progressive ticket.
Once Hunt's continuation in the Governor's office was
assured, Winsor turned his attention to writing his first
official report as State Land Commissioner. -covering the period
from the creation of the Commission on June 6, 1912 to December
1, 1914, Winsor's cay-efully written 167 page report was filled
with tables and statistics and descriptions of Commission
activitie·::. w!··"Jich wc•uld cert.:;,inly SE~em to disprove the carping o::.f
Winsor's critics. Nonetheless, sniping at the Commissioner
To no one's surprise, when the Second ,State Legislature
convened on January 11, 1915, one of the first items to be taken
up was the restructuring of the State Land Commission. On
February 16, the chairman of the Senate Commission on Public
Lands presented a bill providing fay- the abolition of the Land
Commission. On the same day, Senate Bill number 75, the
~:;o-··c ,;:t11 t:•d "!rJi nsol" bill , " \.-Jas F f.~ad. This b i 11 , pF epaF ed by
Mulford Winsor, provided for the continuation of the Commission
with even more power than it had had previously.29 The Winsor
bill died when it was considered by the Committee of the Whole.
The Regula\" Session of the Legislature adjourned on March
11, •,.Jith nothing s~;?ttl(:-?cl. Ho·~J~?\!el", since thE? app·r-opriatic•n fo·..­the
Land Commission ended with the adjournment of the
Legislature, Winsor's enemies indirectly gained their ends. With
funding for the Commission terminated, -on March 12, Mulford
Winsor locked the doors of his office and departed from the
CEtpi tctJ. "3<)
i30\It:-:,·r- nor· !·-iunt
for April 23-May
appropriations for
called a special session of the Legislature
29, chiefly to take up the matter of
government offices. The impass was no~
resolved at the end of the special session.
The embattled governor called a second special session to
begin June 1. Threatening to keep the Legislators in session for
the entire hot Phoenix summer if they did not get down to
business, Governor Hunt's opening statement made it plain that "a
well formulated code for the administration of State lands is
pos.iti\tely n€=c(essal~y."31 House Bill no. 1 was introdw:ed the
fir-st day of tl··H::~ ses~;ion by Claypool of f:Jila County: "/>,n Act to
provide a code for the systematic admini~tration and the care and
protection of the lands belonging to the State of Arizona and
vesting the necessary powers therefor in a department to be kn6wn
a~::. the Stc,ft::• Lc:tr1d C:c)mmission." By J'une 11 the bill had be€'·m
printed and was being considered by the House. When the bill
reached

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A PASSION FOR POLITICS: THE LIFE OF MULFORD WINSOR
By
Margaret F. Maxwell
School of Library Science
University of Arizona
Tucson
1995
CONTENTS
Introduction
I. From Kansas to Arizona
II.Tucson, Arizona, 1899-1903
III. Newspaper Days: Phoenix to Yuma and_Back, 1904-08
IV. Mulford Winsor, Territorial Historian
V. The Making of Arizona's Constitution
VI. The Road to Statehood
VII. Mulford Winsor, State Land Commissioner
VIII. Rancher and Senator, 1915-1917
IX. Water, Politics, and Pestilence, 1917-1918
X. The Yuma Mesa Auxiliary Project and a Run for Governor
XI.The Collapse of Arizona's Cotton Industry; First Regional
iii
1
6
13
17
23
28
34
45
52
61
Planning for Colorado River Control 70
XII. Muddying the waters: Arizona and the Colorado River 76
XIII. Hunt vs Winsor: The River and the Code Commissioner 84
XIV. Damming the Colorado: Winsor and the Swing-Johnson
Bill
XV. The Arizona Colorado River Commission
XVI. Political Interregnum: Winsor becomes State
Librarian, 1932
XVII. The State Library: Depression Years, 1932-36
XVIII. A New State Library Building and the WPA Statewide
Library Project: First Efforts Toward Library
Extension J
XIX. A Nation at War: Arizona's Libraries, 1941-44
XX. State Aid for Arizona's Libraries? 1945-1949
XXI. ASLA vs Winsor: Stalemate 1950-1951
XXII. The Extension Agency: A Double Cross and a Failure
91
96
109
112
121
140
158
1951-54 174
XXIII. The Death of Mulford Winsor and the Activation of
Library Extension, 1956-1957 186
iii
I NTF.:ODUCT I ON
When Mulford Winsor died following a stroke at the age of
eighty two in Phoenix on November 5, 1956, ·he ended more than a
half century of service to the territoiial and state government
of Arizona. Born in Kansas May 31, 1874, he came with his
family at . the age of eighteen to Arizona where he became a
newspaper printer, editor and publisher. In "1901, 1905, and
1909, he was named Assistant Chief Clerk in the Territorial
Legislature. In March 1909 he was called to be Arizona's first
Territorial Historian. In 1910 he was elected a delegate from
Yuma County to the Arizona Constitutional Convention. When
George W. P. Hunt became the first governor of Arizona in 1912,
he asked Winsor to be his private secretary. Later that year, he
was named the first chairman of the State Land Commission, a
position he held until 1915. He was elected Senator from Yuma
County beginning with the third State Legislature meeting
in January 1917, serving as President of the Senate from 1923 to
1928. During the last two years of his Senatorial tenure, he was
a member of the Ari~ona Colorado River Commission, making several
trips to Washington to testify on behalf of Arizona's interests
in the Colorado River controversy. On the death of.Arizona's
first State Li br ar ian, Con P. Crc•ni n, in 1932, Wi nsc•r was named
by the State Legislature as Arizona's second State Librarian, a
position he held until his death twenty-four years later.
Like his predecessor, Mulford Winsor had no background or
training in library work, and, frc•m all indications, no
particular interest in Arizona's libraries aside from the State
Library, which he viewed as an agency whose primary
responsibility lay with service to the State Legislators. As a
long time member of the Arizona State Senate, Winsor was an
expert in bill drafting, a skill which he made available freely
to legislators who wished help in presenting their measures
before the legislature. This, together with the provision of
legislative reference, he regarded as the most important part of
his work as State Librarian. In addition, Winsor's first
important political appointment, that of Territorial Historian of
Arizona, was indicative of his life-long passion for the
collection and preservation of historical and archival material
about Arizona. In 1937, he succeeded in amalgamating the State
Historian's office with that of the State Library, thus
officially adding research in Arizona history to his duties.
Thus, when Winsor was approached by members of the Arizona
State Library Association beginning early in the 1940s with
reiterated requests for State Library support for stronger
libraries in Arizona, his reaction was lukewarm at best. ASLA
efforts to work through the State Library for the establishment
of an extension agency to further the cause of Arizona libraries,
lacking the enthusiastic support of the State Librarian, were
rebuffed year after year by the State Legislature. Finally, in
1948, the rumored possibility of Federal asistance for libraries,
available only to states having an extension agency, breathed new
iv
life into ASLA's cause. On March 17, 1949, the 19th Arizona
State Legislature passed a bill establishing an extension agency
as part of the State Library, this agency to become operative
only if the Public Library Service Demonstration Bill passed
Congress. Since the Congressional Bill f~iled, the Arizona State
Extension Agency remained dormant.
In th~ end, the breakthrough came with Congressional
passage of the Federal Library Services Act durin~ the summer of
1956. Mulford Winsor's death on November 5 that same year led
to a change in the administration of the State Library and the
beginning of a new era of library service in Arizona.
I am appreciative to a number of institutions and
individuals for supporting my study of the life of Mulford
Winsor. My research on Winsor's life and times was supported
by a sabbatical leave granted by the University of Arizona for
the fall semester 1987. In addition, I was named the 1988
recipient of the Bert Fireman Award by the Arizona Historical
Foundation. Members of the Reference Staff at the Arizona
Historical Societies of Tucson and Yuma were generous with
informatic•n, as ·was the ever helpful staff ·at Special
Collections, University of Arizona Library, Tucson.
I owe a special debt of gratitude to Sharon Womack
(1940-1993), then Directc•r of the Arizc•na Department •:Of Library,
Archives & Public Records, who not only was unfailingly
interested in my efforts to learn more about her predecessor in
office, but who supported my research by giving me free access to
the voluminous records of the State Library and of the Arizona
State Library Association, stored at the DLAPR Archives building.
I regret that her untimely death prevented my sharing my
completed history with her.
Finally, my greatest appreciation goes to my good friend,
Mulford Winsor's daughter, Eleanor Winsor Davis (1904-1995), ~ho
loaned me her father's pers•:•nal papers and wh•:o was my initial
inspiration for undertaking the life of Mulford Winsor. It is to
Eleanor, in love and friendship, that I dedicate this volume.
Margaret F. Ma~;well ·
I
I. FROM KANSAS TO ARIZONA
Mulford Winsor was born on May 31, 1874, in Jewell City,
Kansas, the third child and second son of Caroline Kelly and
Mulford Winsor, Sr. A country newspaper editor, his father
managed newspapers in Jewell County until the family moved to
Leavenworth in 1884. Here, according to· his own recollection, the
ten year old boy learned to set type on the b~~Y§Q~Q~ib_gY§QiD9
§!~Q~~~~' standing beside his father. Of this experience he
sc:d.d, "I remember- that the hand-·wyitten copy was veyy pool'",
particularly the unedited but meagey tele£_~raph. "1
Two years lateY, when the family moved to FoYt Smith,
Arkansas, twelve year old Mulford seems to have continued his
work as a compositor; he woY"ked with his fathey on the [Q~i
§m!tb-~!§Y~tQ~ Ca weeklyl, the [Q~t __ §m!ib _ !!m§§ C~orning) and
the ~Y~Q!Qg __ ~~l!· The precocious teenageY gained a reputation
al 1 oveY the state of Ar kan~;as as a "swift," an e~,;tyemel y fast
and accurate compositoY", during the seven years that the Winsors
remained in the area. Here Mulford completed grade school and
high school, the extent of his formal education.
Things seemed to be going well foy the Winsors, except for
the fact that Fort Smith, situated as it was near mosquito
infested marshes 6n the banks of the AYkansas River, was not a
healthy place to live. Malaria struck the family. The oldest
son, Walter, had moved to Arizona in 1890. He wrot' glowing
·reports c•f a land "whE~re thS in seventeen days," mostly on hc•rseback, visiting evey-y
mining camp, farm and ranch in the county. Just how much revenue
1'1ulford collected, and how he established his assessment Cif value
of the various properties he inspected in Yum~ County is not
known. Probably it is ,just as well that after ·one term as tax
assessor, he did not attempt the unpopular task again.
Winsor's survey of Yuma county, which must have interested
him greatly, together with the preparation of required reports to
Governor N. 0. Murphy occupied him through the end of the fiscal
year. On August 24, 1900, a month later, he returned to the YYm~
§yQ, this time as business manager. 4 Without doubt, he
maintained his interest in Arizona politics and the bemoc~atic
party. Perhaps he witnessed the fractious Democ~ati~ con~~htion
held during the month of September in Phoenix. At any rate, at
the opening of the Twenty-first Territorial Legislature in the
new Capitol Building in Phoenix on January 21, 1901, Mulford
Winsor held the appointive post of assistant chief clerk of the
c:ouncil.5
This opportunity to witness as well as to record the day by
day transactions of the Legislature was an invalu~ble
apprenticeship for Winsor's later political career. Much of the
Legislature's time was taken up with revisions to the Arizona
Civil Code, a matter which was to be of much interest to Winsor
some years later. Members of the Legislature locked horns on
many issues with Governor Murphy, rejecting his plea for funding
for the construction of a new Territorial Prison to replace the
antiquated and inadequate fortress at Yuma. They seemed equally
unwilling to heed his request for funding for the construction of
storage reservoirs as an aid to irrigation. However,:they
adopted the saguara blossom as the official flower of Arizona,
and s£;:-lec:ted an official State Ode, "composed by -Mrs. Elise E.
r~verill, of Tempe, and Mrs. Frank Cox of Phc•eni~,;." Mc•reover,
they gave tax exemption foy- twelve years to beet sugar factories,
and p.:.issed a L-l',.. "makint,;.~ it unlawful for any persc•n to conduct a
game of c:hance on the streets of any unincorpoFated city... They
then turned their attention to appropriation bills. In addition
.;._
to the general appropriation bill allowing state expenditures of
$35,000, a number of special appropriation bills were passed,
including the gt71nelrou~. sum of $1000 "to defray the e~;pense •:•f the
Legislative committf.o>e on dedication of the capitol." All in all,
as future f~tate HistoYian Gf?Olrge Kt=lly commented, ·"This
LegislatuYe made moYe appropriations and passed more bills over
the Governor's veto than had ever been done by any former
:.e~.sic•r1. ••s
!...Jhatey·er their feelings toward Governor Murphy, the
good party, ·particulaYly when
account of Sl,OOO to do it. The
building on February 24, 1901,
The legislative chambeYs were
with shrubs and flowers. Governor
Street and President Eugene Ives
legislators knew how to throw
they were given an expense
dedication of the new ·capitol
must have been spectacular.
garlanded with pine and banked
Murphy, Chief Justice Webster
of the Council spoke. 1"1rs. Frank Cox of Phc•enix, fair composer
of the just adopted Arizona Ode, sang the ode to great applause.
In the evening, as one newspaper correspondent put it, the
capitol was "d.::Hnpened in the mo~.t appyoved style," with a punch
bowl in the Governor's office, another in the office of the
Secretary, a third in the Council Chamber and a fourth in the
A-::;sembly Hall. "I:f that will not lay f~::tr over t~1e1best cocktail
route ever travelr~d in the Southwe·:st I miss my guess," conclLtded
the correspondent, with considerable enthusiasm.?
We may assume that our hero took in the festivities, and
that he also survived them. The following month, the March 27,
1901 6~i~QQ§_§goiiO§! reported that ''Mulford Winsor, who has
been serving as Asst. Chief Clerk of the House in the late 21st
finished up his work and came home from Phoenix on Monday
mo·rning's train."
Winsor remained as business manager of the YYffi§_§yo until
May 17, 1901. On that date he severed his association with the
§yo, becoming co-owner and manager of the Southwest Printers
Supply of Los Angeles.B For the Yest of the year, he traveled
about the Territory selling type fonts and other printers'
supplies to Arizona newspapers.
In April 1901 the Tucson e~i~QQ~_[iti~gQ, for which Mulford
WinsoY had worked briefly in 1899, changed hands. HeYbert
Brown, propyietor of the Giii~§O and superintendent for several
years of the TeYritorial PYison at Yuma sold the paper to a
conglome·rat(:? known nch in Sahu~pedi ent:, doubl i n~J Ltp with Mulford's parents must hav'e
meant many adjustments for both families. CaroLine Winsor had
many traits which must have annoyed the generous, affectionate,
openhanded Clara; permeating the c•lder wc•man's character ~was,a
streak of religious piety amounting almost to fanaticism. Her
thrifty ways verged on stinginess. But above all Carolyn Wi~sor
ruled the family •rJith stern matriard1al dominati•::.n .. and ·-" ,-• . ~
unbendingly iron zeal. To give her her due, one must recognize
that it must have been hard for the older woman to suddenly find
herself sharing her home with a daughter in law and two noisy
littlE~ girls. In fact, the constant ir·ritation she prc•bably
felt having to live with Mulford's children, together with_the
resentment that must have gone along with living with a daughter
in law who did ned:; run the same sort of "tight ship" as she did,
must have been galling. Perhaps this was the reason that
Mulford's father decided to build another house on some property
he and Muffoyd had ear 1 i er acquired on the me~;a ·east of downtc•wn
Yuma. As soon as the house was livable, he and Caroline Winsor
moved, leaving the valley home to Mulford and his family. . ·; 6, folc:le-;-· 5, DL/';PF.:.
3. 1'"1ul for·d Win~-:.or, "New~5papers," types•::ript copy in E. W. Davis
notebook #:2, 1905-1909.
4. 1'"1ulfor·d t,Jinscqr, "First Daily PubJ.ishE:.!r "Gives
B<=?g inning, " :i!.dffi:iiLRsilL_§!dQ, St?p t • :25, 1 '353.
5 .. IIJidQ
6. Mu1 fore:!
copy, E. l.;J.
Winsor to Ollie
Davis collection,
Bt· own,
notebook
undated letter,
1 '305-1 '30'3.
types.:lr i pt
.:.•.
1/
IV. MULFORD WINSOR, TERRITORIAL HISTORIAN
By the time the Twenty-fifth Territorial Legisla~ure
convened in Phoenix on January 18, 1909, Mulford Winsor had
sought out his friend George W. P. Hunt, again President of the
Council, and possibly through Hunt's influence had be~n ap~ointed
assistant chief clerk to the Council .. Certainly Hunt, from what
transpired later in the legislative sessions, wanted Mulford as
his as.!:dst,:,:mt.
Clar~, still in Tucson with her famify, mu~t have been
wondering by this time whether she had been abandoned. A letter
from her, which probably reached him about the first of February,
spoke of her feelings. What Mulford thought when he read her
letter may be imagined. Certainly he had been neglectful in not
making the trip to Tucson to see his new son. But it was ~ long
train journey, certainly a good deal out of the way if one is
going from Yuma to Phoenix. And the trip from Phoenix to Tucson,­if
not quite as long, took the better part of a day, and for a
man trying to make ends meet on the small salary of an assistant
chief clerk, the expense was a further consideration. But
obviously a letter was necessary, to smooth things over. Heaven
only knew what Clara's parents thought of him, to say nothing of
his Tucson friends. Mulford's letter to Clara of February 5 is a
masterpiece of contrition and conciliation. Apologizing for his
seeming neglect, he promised to do better in the future.
Beginning a litany which Clara was to hear all to often in the
future, hi':? cc•nt i nued, ·~I was di sap pointed at not bei 11g able to gc•
over to Tucson and see you and the babies ••• but I had the work
piled up so that it was impossible. I might be able to run down
some Saturday night, but the expense is so much that !_think
probably that will not be advisable either.· At the worst, it
will not be very long, if nothing happens, before we will be
going hom(~, and then, I hope we wi 11 have time to bec.;::.mt=:?
c:icquainted oncE~ more .•• ":l. ,,.
"If r·1othi ng happt:ms... we wi 11 be going home."· . But Mulford
was hoping that something ~QYld happen, for George W. P. Hunt,
President of the Legislative Council, and his friend Mulford
Winsor were quietly laying some plans. On Tuesday, March 9,~the
plans came to fruition. It seemed probable to Mulford, if matters
went according to schedule, that he would not take Clara home to
Yuma for quite a while. As reported by the aLi~QQ~_B§~Y~li£~Q,
";.\mong sevE?"rEd bilLs b·rought into the council yesterday and
at once put through under a suspension of the rules was one
creating the office of territorial historian and providing for
the collection and compilation of all available data regarding
the earlier history of the territory. The bill was introduced
by President Hunt .•.
"It ~_;hall be the duty of the Arizona historian t•:• c•:•1le•:t
data of the events which mark the progress of Arizona from its
earliest day to the present time, that an accurate record may
be pr~?e-rVE?d of thost=:? thl~illing and heroic occurrences; -t;hat
knowledge of the achievements of Arizona's trail blazers rna~ not
perish with the passing of her pioneers, but may be perpetu~ted
c.-1.nd disseminated for the benefit of the present and f.U,,~Ltre
.;.._.
I~
generations; that the names of those whose lives were and are
identified with the establishment, the progress, and the
development of Arizona may be given just and lasting recognitjon.
It shall be the duty of the historian, in the performance of
such duty, to travel from place to place, as the requir~ments of
the case may dictate, and to take such steps as may be required.
to secure the data necessary to the car~ying out of the purposes
and objects herein set forth.
'Tor thE~ purpos€~ of paying the salary and defraying the
office and traveling expenses of the historian, the following
sums are hereby appropriated annyally: To pay the annual salary
of the historian the sum of $2,400, and to defray the traveling
and office expenses and other expenses actually and necessarily
ino::urJ--ed in secuy-ing hi~>to;--ical data, and ccompiling and
classifying the same, $1,800 per annum, OY" so much thereof as
may be necessary •••
"It is s.ai d th-::;t in the eve·nt of the enactment of the bi 11,
into a law Mulfoy-d Winsor, assistant chief clerk of the council,
who has for some yeay-s been interested in the early histoy-y of
the terY"itory, will be put forward for the appointment to the
office of historian. "2
Mulford must have known that
wrote his letter of Feby-uary 5
hint of any such possibility. ,6,s
it would be the better part of
would be together again.
this was in the wind, when he
to his wife, though he gave no
matters worked themselves out,
a year before Clara and Mulford
The bill, which seemed non-controversial enough as far as
the legislators were concerned, was sent forward to the House,
where, as had been done in the Council, it was hurried through
under a suspension of the rules.3 But at this point it hit a
snag. Sharlot M. Hall, bill clerk for the Council in the previous
legislature, one of the attache positions which Winsor had
coveted but for which he had not been selected, had the backing
of the powey-ful Arizona Federation of Women's Clubs as th~ir
candidate for the historian position. Without daubt, Sharlot
Hall was at least as qualified as was Mulfoy-d Winsor for the
position. Outraged, the F~oenix Woman's Club decided to take
a stand against the Legislature's seeming chicanery. The next day
the combined Phoenix Woman's Club and the Arizona Federation of
Women's Clubs submitted an official protest to GoveY"nor Joseph H.
Kibbey, offering the name of Sharlot Hall as a more qualified
candidate.4
What was Governor Kibbey to do? Unwilling to further rouse
the wrath of the powerful clubwomen of Arizona, he addressed an
open letter to them. Appearing in the same issue of the
E@QY~li~~Q as the women's protest, the lettey- explained rather
uncomfortably that the govey-nor had obligated himself to appoint
r1ulford ~..Jin!:~or. As he put it, "Some two weeks ago:• MY". Mulford
Winsor, a democrat, came to my chambers and broached the subject
of the creation of the office of territorial histori~n ••• I
approved the plan and suggested that Miss Hall would be admir~bly
qualified to fill that position. He said that the legislature
would, however, pass a bill creating the office if he, Mr.
Winsor, would be appointed to it .•• The altey-native presented to
_,._,·
me was to have no such office at all, or consent to appoint Mr.
Winsor to it .•. My judgment is that I decided wisely to have 'the
office, even though I could not designate Miss Hall to be its
incumbent. If I had insisted on Miss Hall we would not have had
the office established, so that my action in no event can be
deemed to be a want of recognition on my .part of her worth
c:1nd fitnt.~ss. "5
Thus, on March 18, 1909, the last day of the twenty-fifth
and final Territorial Legislative Assembly, Governor Kibbey
signed the bill which became Chapter 94 of th~ Laws of Arizona;
An Act to provide for the collection, compilation, preservation
and publication of the historical data of Arizona.6
As the Territorial legislators scattered from the Capitol
to their homes in various parts of Arizona, Mulford Winsor began
to plan for his new assignment. Interviewed in his office in
the Capitol Building, he told the reporter that he would be in
Pho(::?ni :'l; foy three oY foul'" months "woYking over s.::.me mate·rial that·
he has collectedy before starting out on his travels over the
territoyy .•. Before he can even begin this work, he will have to
get a list of the best souyces of information, the names of
old-timeYs •.. The immediate need of the office was to obtain the
fJi 11 decidE· it as he sees fit. "10
Meanwhile, Mulford continue with his activities, gathering
materials toward his prospective history of Arizona. By the end
of th\-:2 month, L·J:i.n·::;o1·· ·r"e?pot·i;t:.-?d to 1·1unt th.::..t ''I am going right
ahead with my work, and have made much greater progress than I
anticipated. Ordinarily there might be some hope that one's
enthusiasm and progress would attract.attention of a favorable
character, and to that extent act as a recommendation; but the
Governor has never evinced the slightest disposition to pay any
attention to what is going on, or to care whether I were
accomplishing anything or not. It rather leads one to the belief
that he may be afraid that he will find, should he investigate, a
condition which will not justify removal •••
"If I should bE·? iiTl~('·n·f(;?rE·?d •...Jith in the? ~,tork I am doing it
vJ:i.ll undoubtt:.?cHy bE' thE' £;!Ye," S CONSTITUTION
By October 4, 1909, Mulford Winsor was again at his Yuma
Valley ranch, still smarting over his summary dismissal as
Territorial Historian, but somewhat mollified by a kindly letter
from his friendly supporter, George W. P. Hunt. With the definite
possibility of statehood in the near future, politics wer~ on
1-lunt's mind. It w.::t~; none too ear-ly to be certain that the
Democr-atic Party was strongly in place, with active committee
r-epr-esentatives in ever-y county, r-epresentatives~ of ~ourse, who
thought favorably of one George W. P. Hunt as a viable
possibility for- Democratic par-ty candidate for Arizona's first
state governor-. Who would better be the Secretary to the
Democratic Par-ty of Arizona than Mulford Winsor, suggested Hunt.
Winsor was flattered that his mentor Hunt wanted him on his
team, but he r-esponded cautiously, indicating his interest,
while reminding Hunt that since he was no longer Arizona
Hi~=;torian, he must return to ranchin£1 fo1r his livelihood. "o~:..s for
your unduly kind e:,;p·re~;s;ion regarding myself," said he, "I c.'ln
only say that I will never fail to do whatever lies in my power
to work for thE? party's good."1
Clar-a and the. children joined Mulford at the r-anch and
he settled into a pleasant r-hythm of activities which often
took him into Yuma. Here he worked from time to time for- J. H.
Westover, now editor of the ~Q~Diag_§ya an~ visited with his
mother- and brother Walter in their house on the mesa not far- from
the §YD office. In addition, as Deputy Gr-and Exalted Ruler over
the Elks Club of Arizona, on Mar-ch 20, 1910, he laid the
cornerstone of the new Elks building in Globe.2
While Winsor was in Globe he visited his friend Hunt. Did
the two men talk politics? Or did their conversation turn
per-haps to the fact that Mulfor-d Winsor, an old newspaper man,
was cur-rently without editorial employment? From events which
transpired shortly ther-eafter, one may surmise that their­conversation
had something to do with both topics.
George W. P. Hunt, a self made man who had ar-rived penniless
in Globe in 1880, was general manager of the Old Dominion
Commercial Company and president of the Old Dominion Bank at
Globe as well as a long time Arizona politician. A m6derately
wealthy man who was outspoken in his pr-ogressive political
philosophies, Hunt had as many enemies as friends in his
hometown. Globe 1 s well established daily newspaper, the
Republican oriented __ 8~i~QQ~_§il~g~--~§lt, took every opportunity
to snipe at his political aspirations.
A few months before Winsor-'s and Hunt's chat, John 0. Dunbar
hac established what he hoped would be a mouthpiece for the
Democratic party, the Q~il~_§lg~g. Whether Hunt bought out the
RDil~ __ §lg~g is not known, but it seems almost more than
coincidental that on May 27, 1910, Mulford Winsor was announced
a£; br~.i. ng thr~ ne•,1 "sponsor for the pol i o::y of that paper ."3 From
this time, the §lghg became the vehicle for Hunt's progr-essive
political ideas.
Winsor's connection with Ibg_§lghg came at a crucial time in
Arizona's political history, as Congress battled over the long
awaited Arizona statehood bill. The bill had passed the House in
January 1910 1 but not until June 16 did the Senate ~ass it.
Dubbed "thE? ·~nabling act," it·:;; py·ovi·:;;ion~~ cd th:::tt ln-izon ''candidate fo·r­the
po~~it:ion of p-r·E:::o~:~ic:linsl offict'?r of the Convention. "5
Meanwhile, as the Q~ilL __ §lQ~~ cautiously stated that it
suppor-tF~d tJoth l..Jin~~or and Hunt, and that "either- would make .::.in
admirable prE·~::.iclin9 c•fficer," 6 Hunt was qLlietly laying the-~
groundwork for his own candidacy. Because of the lopsided
majority of Democratic delegates to the convention, it was a
foregone conclusion that the President of the Convention would be
a member of that party. But that president was not to be
Mulford Winsor. At 10 a.m. on October 10, the Democrats caucused
at the Phoenix Elks' lodge. On their third ballot, G.W.P. Hunt
was voted Convention President.?
Although Mulford Winsor played an important part as a
delegate and chairman of two important committees to the
Constitutional Convention, this disappointment may have been
a key to some of the problems he would encounter in his future
\:::ffort:s to t-i~:;E· politically. f~iCcor·dinL~ to one obselrver, "At thr-i>
time of the constitutional convention the delegates were pretty
well divided into the 'liberal' Ctheir opponents called them
radicals' and the 'conservative' (called reactionaries by the
opposition) camps ••• On a straight showdown of power (Mulford
Winsor) could have been elected by about 2 l/2 to 1. But the
conservatives figured he was too radical and there were some
rumblings of an open break if he were elected. Ordinarily this
would not have mattered, but President Taft was opposed ~~
(radical ideas such as Initiative, Referendum, and Recall,
particularly the recall of Judges) Hence, if ••• statehood
was to be achieved, it was necessary that a pretty well united
front Cat least on the surface) be presented. At this poirit, in
order to maintain a united front, G. W. P. Hunt was agreed upon
as the compromise permanent chairman ... Had (Winsor) been named as
permanent chairmany he would also h~ve b~en selected as a
candidate for either governor or one of the th~ee congressional
pc,·:st:sll u a
11 8
Hunt, .however, received general support from both radicals
and conservatives. He seems to have been an admirable convention
leader, both astute and tactful in his dealinq~ with a sometimes
intransigent group of men. He soothed Winsor'; ·wounded feelings
by appointing him chair of two committees, the only delegate ~o
honored. Indeed, Hunt in his unpublished autobiography indicated
that l·1e made a c.:::.nscious effo1rt to "be fair and .just in all of
thE• questions that c~::\me before the body." '3
The most controversial propositions before the convention
were those of initiative, the right of the people to initiate
legislation; refE?rE?ndum, the right· of the people to re.ject laws
passed by the state legislators; and recall, the right of
Arizona's electors to recall elected officials wh6se performance
th~:-?y d:iV0minfh "~...Jhen I W0?nt into the hotE?l with my arm in a ·"sling and
face still showing signs of my recent accident, Winsor shouted
with laughter and made all sorts of fun of me. That night he.and
Mr. Bullard spoke. Both made fine talks, but in the morning
thf:.n-·:e ~.J.::1.~; ju·:;t one lint~ in the f!i.§!;;l.!E§ __ E;g~i.§~ to the effec-t that
they had spoken. So I had my fun then, telling Mr. Winsor the
laugh was on him, that undoubtedly if I had been on the platform
thEre would have bE?E?n .:.; front pa9e story. "4
Ratification day came on February 9, and to no one's great
surprise, the new constitution was approved by a large margin of
Arizona's voters.5 A delegation of twelve prominent Arizonans,
led by G. W. P. Hunt, went to Washington to lobby Congress in
favor of statehood. Unable for financial reasons to make the
trip, Winsor contented himself with writing a well thought out
and, he hoped, persuasive letter to President Taft, asking
Presidential approval for the constitution.6
But meanwhile, as Arizonans followed the torturously
slow progress of the statehood bill through the houses of
Congress, some of the Democratic leaders felt sure enough of the
c:::>ventu.::'\1 ·:;ucce~.;·:;ful outcomE~ of th(·? cau~~e to begin makin9 a .few
plans. As early as May, Hunt wrote to Mulford Winsor discussing
prospective Democratic contenders for State and National office.
Many prominent men were interested in running for the United
States Senate. However, said Hunt, as far as he knew no one had
E•;,;pr·es:.·:~E~d intE~y·est in Arizona's Congressi•:•nal seat. "Now,·~ ,sa~d
1·-lunt, "if you h,:i\.iE~ aspir-ations for- Congr-ess, and your- speech in
Bisbee demonstr-ated to me that you can hold your own with any of
them, why not indicate to some of your- friends what you would
like. If you should decide to enter the field for either House
you would be a formable (sic) candidate ••• I feel that the
people will insist that only a man who is absolutely known as a
f.H·oqr-E·?r:~siv!e can win •.. Let me hear from you." 7
Winsor was definitely interested. In July he began stumping
the southern par-t of Ar-izona, saying nothing of any per-sonal
aspiration~ for- public office, but urging stat~hood even at the
cost of tempor-ary compr-omise on the matter- of the recall of
jud~:H~S mea~,;ure in thE;! con~:;titution. In Phoeni:,; "for· a brief
bL!~;inr=?s':; vi~;it, 11 he madEo? himsi·:.:>lf available to a reporter frCtm the
{jr.i.;s.f!!JfLDgmf!f.:C.€!1:.!!.. "St. Everyone, h-om the simplest Arizonan to
the Pr-esident of the United States, knew that thi~ was a charade,
since Arizonans had already vowed to replace the clause in their
constitution as soon as they gained the coveted statehood--but
that was the condition. To no one's surprise, as soon as
statehood had been achieved, Ar-i~onans reinstated the .judicial
recall clause.
But meanwhile, the primary election was drawing near, and
on September 8, 1911, Mulfor-d Winsor formally announced his
candidacy for- the Democratic nomination for Co~gressional
F.:i.:-:-pr-e·::.r=?ITtative. ;.\ ler1£;Jthy articlt"o? in tht~ X!.:H!.l§! __ §l.:!!J. 1
simultaneously pr-inted as a four page pamphlet, included his
Declaration of Pr-inciples, stating that he stood for the
Initiative, f"": st:?cr-et p hi1n d "comm:i':~;s:;.i,;::.n to str-ug!;;iJE~ on, fo1r hE~l'" and in he1r
name; to fight her battles in the Congress of our Nation; to
represent the cause of ProgY"ess which she has so enthusiastically
and so emphatically espoused; to be officially a servant of the
pE':!oplE'y C:\S ur·;offic::i. n o·~J 13ovel'" n ol'" of Al'" i zona, 11 8r.i;.QDfLQ§illQf.L9i,
F !7.?b. 14, 1 '31::.:-~.
21. "State r-:::ec:ept:ior·; • .Jill be held at Hotel Adams this EvE·ning,"
Br.i~QD~-§~;.gttg, Feb. 14, 1912.
:~::~"2 a II l''h C!l.t -==·~1f'l d ~- at t 1·-1 e t1ctr't s t €~¥" F.:E'C ep t i ()n' II 8r:.i!fQOS _ Q§ill!2£r...ei, F f:~b AI
VII. MULFORD WINSOR, STATE LAND COMMISSIONER
The new governor and his secretary seem to have worked
togethE!t- to thE~ir· mutual Sc:\tisfact:ion. · Who knows how long
the arrangement might have lasted had a seemingly innocuous bill,
H.B 17E3, "Provichnfi fen- the pay of state officers in certain
casE?~=-," not b,s the );;l __ Efl§Q _ J:!§:Cf!lf! put it, "The
meeting of party council was one continuous and long drawn out
fight in which the conservatives won on all counts. Each faction
had a draft of a platform and while full and over-discussion was
permitted the conservative steam roller was in good working order
and the radicals under the leadership of Mulford Winsor didn't
get a look in. There was even a fight against the endorsement of
tht-~ rE?caJ.J.. "6
If these intimations of political trouble were not enough,
Mulford suddenly found himself up to his eyeballs in hot water
on the domestic front. With Mulford first in Phoenix working
as secretary to Governor Hunt and later on the road traveling
about Arizona as Land Commissioner, Clara and the three children
had returned once again to live with Clara's parents in Tucson.
Eleanor, the oldest, had been enrolled in second grade in the
Tuc:;on r,;chool, with hE:r WE·ll lovf".:>d "Aunt Toc•tsie" as the teachf?r;
t"'l of ach.i.ev!2meJYt." Whet}H:?r- this was thi:? whc•le story
or not, they discussed the possibilitj of divorce-- a solution
that evidently was unthinkable to Clara, despite her years of
unhappines~ and their long periods of separation. Nothing was
r-esolved at the end of the painful discussion. ·Mulford promised
Clara that he would come to Tucson on November 9 to talk further
with Papa Jim and Ba Bown, whom he seems genuinely to have liked
and r £:?s-:.pll to 13o'·IE·~'lrnor· Hunt, they rE~alized t~1at he has been kept
pretty busy of late with the ax committee of the legislature on
his hands •.• The Citizen suggests to Mr. Winsor that he eschew
politics, stumping tripsf defenses of the governor and himself,
and devote his time to selecting the lands granted under the
enabling act ... At the rate he has been going, it would take
fourteE~n yec:1r·::; tc:. mc:l.k£0 the selection .•. "11
Despite legislative reluctance to sink more state money
into what seemed to most of them to be a highly inefficient
operation, during the last week of the third session, Senator
Da··h.s of Marj.copa County intiroduced Senate Bill 75, "to cc•ntinL.ie
for two years more the present state land commission and provide
it with sufficient funds to carry out the purposes of the land
cod.:::?. . . " Th i ~:; W<='~·"=· pasr::;ed by the House as House Bi 11 _31 and
signed by the governor on May 17, 1913.12
Winsor's activities as Chairman of the State Land
Commission seem to have made him more aware of the potential
value of Yuma area land. Early in March in conjunction with Cy
Byrnes, John Bolin, James McDonald, and G. W. P. Hunt he
purchased 150 acres of prime Yuma acreage at $60.00 per acre,
•.,,;ith Hunt puttir-HJ up $4,500, half the money.13 A •.-~eek later,
l..Jin~;or- tLtl·-nr··r-itory." This was cc:dled "lieu
lE.ind ;ch,·,:wP;Jt"~." In most in!stancG?s instt~ad .::.f th,n Act to
provide a code for the systematic admini~tration and the care and
protection of the lands belonging to the State of Arizona and
vesting the necessary powers therefor in a department to be kn6wn
a~::. the Stc,ft::• Lc:tr1d C:c)mmission." By J'une 11 the bill had be€'·m
printed and was being considered by the House. When the bill
reached